Making Homemade Wine and Beer

Hey, that’s me picking strawberries. Well actually it is my assistant Jake. It was his first adventure out to a farm and Grandpa put the boy to work. Gotta teach them early. This was my first ever batch of wine made from strawberries and I have to admit, it did not turn out bad. Generally, after the wine has completely fermented (and it is usually a dry wine), I go back and sweeten it up. For this batch, I used Splenda because somewhere I read that Splenda does not ferment. Here is the recipe if you wish to give it a try.

20 lbs of fresh strawberries
10 teaspoons acid blend
5 teaspoons yeast nutrient
50 drops pectin enzyme
1 ¼ teaspoons grape tannin
10 campden tablets
23 cups sugar (about 10 lbs)
2 ½ gallons water
2 frozen Welch’s white grape/raspberry juice, 11 oz size

Crush the berries and add all the ingredients to a 5 gallon primary fermenter. Add the yeast or the yeast starter the following day. Allow to ferment for about 7 days before racking over to a secondary fermenter. In about 3 months, check with a hydrometer and if stable enough, bottle.

I sweetened the wine before bottling with ¼ cups Splenda to 1 gallon wine