Easy Homemade Strawberry Wine from Whole Fruit 

Food for thought. I plan ahead. Buy the strawberries, blueberries or whatever when they're cheapest. Clean and freeze them. That way winemaking isn't so expensive. As a plus, frozen berries break down much easier.

Dericka is, as usual, correct. Strawberries are not berries, they are a pseudocarp: a collection of individual fruits all imbedded in a fleshy receptacle. They are also a member of the rose family! So, Dericka, if want something else in it, maybe mix a little rosewater in?

I make this with roasted cocoa nibs to make a chocolate strawberry. Add .3 Oz of nibs and a cup of tea for the mouth feel.

Just did the math on how expensive fresh strawberries are on your end compared to Belgium. Right now on average they’re around 4€ per kilogram and it’s the beginning of the season so prices will go down (current cheapest price is for Spanish strawberries at 2,70 € per kilogram, French ones at 5,50 € per kilogram). Yours went at around USD 5,45 per kilogram. Ouch. Frozen strawberries go at around 3,67 € per kilogram at the moment at my local supermarket. Last year I used those for strawberry wine. No de-crowning, simply dump, add sugar, mash (lightly), dump in a brew bag, add sugar, let sit with pectic enzyme, proceed with yeast and if needed extra liquid. I used apple juice for extra liquid. Removed the fruit after 3-4 days post pitching the yeast. If I remember correctly I also added wine tannin. The end result was a strawberry wine that felt like being slapped in the face with a tub of fresh strawberries as soon as you opened the bottle. A few bottles went to a friend who doesn’t drink mead because she follows a 100% plant-based diet that excludes honey as honey, to her, isn’t plant-based because of the bees involvement. She LOVED it. I still have a few bottles because I really want to check how it is at one year old. I’ve had to hide them from my daughter… Thanks for the video! Edit: Recently I grossly underestimated the available space in my wide mouth fermenter when I wanted to start a raspberry mead. I’d dumped 3 kilograms of frozen raspberries in a fermenter I’d lined with a brewing bag. Not having a larger fermentation vessel available I went for Plan B. Plan B consisted of allowing the berries to defrost and adding the pectic enzyme. I poured in apple juice and let it sit for 24 hours. Took a gravity reading (1.050). Added nutrient (Fermaid O), tannin and yeast, and let ‘er rip. After 3-4 days I removed the bag, gently squeezed it, added the obtained liquid back to the fermenter. Added a further 50 points worth of honey. That pretty much filled back my fermenter. This basically did the same thing as having a larger fermentation vessel and an original gravity of 1.100. Good enough for me! Once fermentation is done I’m proceeding just like I would with any melomel. I wasn’t worried about making vinegar or oxidation because fermentation was still active and it just kept trucking along nicely. It smells great and I’m really looking forward to the end product. Edit to the edit: 71B had gone down to 0.998 on me several times. A rose petal mead, my first version of my passionfruit mead, my current passionfruit mead, my strawberry wine and my lilac blossom mead all went down that low. My second batch of passionfruit mead was with a different yeast (my homebrew store’s Brewferm Yeast Mead, tolerance of 15%). After having made a few brews using Fermaid O and that other yeast I’m suspecting that I found the Beast’s cousin. 😂

I really needed this video. I lost my mom yesterday. I'm really struggling and your videos bring me joy.💚

Video drops, I squeal like a kid, wife laughs at me.😂😂😂

Strawberry/Rhubarb would be yummy. Also, strawberries and blueberries? Strawberries/red, blueberries/blue... red and blue make purple. Yum... purple. On another note, I've watched a few other "brew channels," but YOUR channel is the ONLY channel I really trust for GOOD info. I started brewing in January of this year (due to watching you nice folks) and I now have 2 three-gallon carboys full and 14 one-gallon carboys full. Also, I have 2 two-gallon buckets bubbling now. PLUS... I have bottled and pasteurized (sous vide method) over 100 bottles. I've finished 21 different batches of wine (some batches were 1 gallon, some were two gallon batches and some were 3 gallons.) Thanks to you wonderful TEACHERS, my girlfriend shares a 750 ml bottle of delicious wine with me every evening. THANKS!!! Seriously... THANK YOU, Brian and Derica.

I have made several batches of Strawberry and Peach wine using Tropicana's Strawberry and Peach juice ( no -ates or -ites in it). Usually stays a little bit hazy but this last batch I added some pectic enzyme and it is absolutely crystal clear. Never had a bottle last until the one year mark yet as it is my wife's favorite. Tropicana's Blackberry Blueberry is very good as well. Thank you for making such straight forward and entertaining videos. Much love from the Great White North.

I did a strawberry muscadine that turned out really well. Frozen strawberries and hand picked muscadine.

This kind of blows me away. I've been considering making a strawberry wine and have been looking at videos for the last couple of days to get an idea of what I may run into, and here you are with a brand new video dealing with exactly what I'm researching. Full points for mind reading.

I once made a rosemary bread and put strawberry freezer preserves on a slice. I was amazed at how well the herb worked with the fruit. It was like finding the perfect wine and food pairing, or the sipper that is unbelievably fantastic with a favorite cigar. It's as if the gods are being overly generous on days like this, to create a memorable moment of culinary enjoyment. Holy crap, am i drunk already? Haha. I enjoy watching your channel!

Every time Jorge says that I laugh he just sounds so happy and excited!

Thank you for consistently and thoroughly explaining the value of specific gravity readings. Ive done beers and a couple meads now, but have always shied away from taking readings, because it seemed like alot of useless and complicated numbers. Your videos and explanations have made it easily accessible and understandable. I am now taking readings and enjoying the process. Thank you for what you do!

I've been binge watching you for the last week. You both are an informational joy! Thank you.

I love seeing y’all work together. Tism love and sharing passions. 💕

YESSSS.... I just froze strawberries freshly picked the other day getting ready 2 start it.... thank you

I just made a strawberry wine, actually first brew I've ever done, and holy crap! I'm from Missouri, and I don't really like any wines from any of the local wineries, this homemade strawberry wine to me tastes better than any wine I've had here in Missouri. Even though I didn't use this recipe, (you just posted it) I've got concord grape wine and black cherry cider going on right now, about a week in, and that was your recipe. Thanks guys!

I love big mouth bubbler fermenters so easy to work with 👍🏻

Strawberry Basil! One of the best drinks I have ever had!

This is a great video and my wife and I will try this. Back in the before times of 2021 I started watching you guys and it always makes me happy. But I remember from those days having to wait in real time for every project to finish before we got a tasting vid. I'm so happy to see that we get the tasting and thoughts all in the same vid!

you two have inspired me so much! i have two meads going right now and im excited to try them when theyre done ☺☺☺

The leaves and stems of strawberries make a wonderful tea, also too.

I can attest to the benefit of that pitcher. I bought one myself and it has made it so much easier to measure and pour my brews!

The term faux ageing you used in other videos when pasteurisation feel like ageing was an excellent way to describe it. Im not a huge strawberry fan but this sounds delightful, perfect for a nice summers day sitting in the garden. Great video as always

I know you have probably thought of this but the water you added, heat it first then add the sugar to it to make a sugar syrup. Let it cool then add it. You break down the easier without having to mix trying to dissolve as you did. Let it sit 24 hrs to reach room temp & read the temp prior to adding the yeast to stay in temp range for the yeast to work. In syrup form the sugar seems to work great & you won't add to much water. After adding the syrup take a gravity reading to be sure you've reached your target. Even today I get ahead of myself with water. it just weakens the flavor of the final product. All in all what your doing is a great method for a small batch of really good tasting wine with as you said the "sweet spot" in taste & ABV. Over the years the more I learn about wine making the more mistakes I make but I do a lot of experimenting. It sure makes it nice when you find that sweet spot.

Weve got strawberrys in garden im so chuffin happy thanks you pair

May the force be with you too!! Thank u for the video. Can't wait for strawberry season here in pa later this yr soon.

I made a strawberry wine once that didn't hold on to enough of the red color. I fixed the color issue by adding hibiscus tea and I thought the strawberry and hibiscus went well together.

Strawberry and lime is my favourite strawberry combo but not so much the fruit/juice of the like but the zest. For the amount of strawberries you had there I would say the zest of 2 maybe 3 limes.

Great personalities and presentation. Thanks !

Good on ya Dericka enjoy following you both along

Would love to see a raspberry/mint mead! I think it would be a very refreshing summertime mead!

I’m so glad you made this recipe I’ve been wanting to perfect my strawberry wine. Do not ever oak this wine it comes out very bad! This is personal experience. Great job guys!

Brief cooment for the pitcher objector - I bought it and LOVE it! In my 60 years of cooking and kitchen hobbies, I have used lots of pitchers. This one is totally worth the cost. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Great episode guys keep up the good work.

We were planning out a strawberry mead just the other day! Hope it comes out that color. If you want to do another one strawberry, use this as your primary and add caco and vanilla in secondary like you did in the chocolate cherry wine. Bet that would come out amazing.

I just made a raspberry wine. One thing I will say from a cost perspective is that you can buy bulk frozen fruit way cheaper and generally you have to macerate the fruit anyway so frozen actually helps with that process. Filtration has been a nightmare though. The other advantage of frozen is that it greatly reduces the oxidization risk.

You pick!!! What a great idea!! Thank you guys for the awesome ideas and videos :) Been binge watching your channel 😅 You both rock :)

Strawberry and Kiwi, are a classic combo!

I love the Firefly and Finding Nemo references. I wonder if this wine needed such sweetening because of the acidity of the strawberries. Good call to stop sweetening and check it out after the pasteurization. I love Brian’s “I just need another taste”😃

They did the mash, the (straw)berry mash... And yes, I love little big mouth bubblers for 1 gal. experimentation batches.

Will be doing this and elderflower wine this year. ❤

Hay love it when your both having fun 🎉😊

I made strawberry 2 years ago, did the freez thaw method. Finished around 13% but I didn't rack it the 2nd time and I had a bottle bomb. Noted...always rack twice. Love the videos, gonna be fun to make my next batch.

It would be interesting to know how a Honeydew Melon drink would pan out. Other than that, I believe the best smoothie flavor Ive drank was: Strawberries + Peaches + Pineapple.

Thank you for your work.

Thanks for sharing

The synergy between you two, wow. If for whatever reason booze making doesn’t work out for you, you’d make for a great sitcom.

I'm brewing strawberry wine and I made the 2nd fermentation in the presence of oak chips. It has a very good taste so far (3 months running yet) because part of the sensation of sweetness was masked by the oak. I guess it would be nicer if cinnamon stick and black pepper seeds were added too. This maybe will be the next try.

This is the first time I’m making wine and after searching I found this video. I love this video and enjoyed the knowledge and information you shared. I’m mashing my fruit now and I’m feeling a little bit more confident that I won’t mess this up after watching. 😊 I ordered what I needed and can’t wait to finish what I’ve started. Thank you!

Hi guys. Awesome wine. What I did once, I created like a simple syrup and have the gravity measure before put the strawberries and I did it in a 3 gallon jar o make sure I did no go overflow. Great job guys. I am from Puerto Rico but living in Cape Coral, Fl

You ARE mind readers!

Great video. I have about 6 lbs of frozen strawberries that need to be used. Think I'm going to get a Little Big Mouth Bubbler 1st though. I prefer a larger opening than the 1gallon mason jars I have at my disposal. Thanks for the tips.

Loved the Sling Shot Channel reference!

I asked for this during Steadfest... Strawberry Ginger Wine/mead!!! I think it would be just lovely. As always, love you guys and you are still da bomb diggity yo.

17 hot July moon......😂

every spring I think strawberry rhubarb that would be so good.....maybe great video again as always!

Thanks!

Think you. My first two batches were strawberry, and I was asking all kinds of questions. For $10 and three years of growing, I made 6 gallons and will never need to by strawberries again, grow your own.

We have an excellent pick-your-own farm only 10 minutes away, we get 12-14 lbs of strawberries every year. I made strawberry wine last year, but I alternate with mead. I just use a potato masher in a brew bag, sanitized, in a 2 gallon bucket. It's low tech and works awesome. I've found that it tasted awesome even dry, so I didn't backsweeten. I ended up using 3 lbs of strawberries and white sugar, for around 1.080 initial gravity (1 gallon batch). Love it, one of the easiest and best wine recipes I've done. Cheers! 7:42

Oh nice! I am making a strawberry bombe mead at the moment, it's just gone into secondary so this is a nicely timed comparison

That looks so good and am I alone in thinking that Dericka has one of the most beautiful smiles ever? just gorgeous, You are a very fortunate man, sir.

Speed aging, which is used in a number of things, is using heat and agitation in high doses to get the product ready in less time.

Just backsweetened my first batch. Started in December and due to work, just kind got too busy for it. Started at 1.140 and final was .990. Holy crap is it strong. Almost rubbing alcohol until adding 1/2 cup sugar. OMG it is soo good. Thank you both for starting me on this journey.

❤ Strawberry, mint & hibiscus

This guy is amazing

my first hooch wine lol was-oranges lemons raisins sugar bread yeast -did the job but hard on the kidneys -then i did frozen fruit concentrates-best was wild blackberry sugar wine yeast mmmm

I like that thought process with the button pushing 90% of the time it works 100% of the time lol

9 bucks frozen at Wally World, and I’ve made GREAT wine with them. If you can wait 10 months to a year to drink it, you will be rewarded. Love your videos!

Use sugar to a certain point until brewed out, then add the honey for the last part, leaving the honey as desired available sweetness.. works great.

Some sorbitol gives it a wonderful cool mouth feel.

Your quirky delivery makes your videos fun to watch.

Just discovered your channel, love it. I have a history of brewing bootleg wine on my ships when I was in the Navy. My Navy buddies loved me. I would brew it with canned grape juice, apple or anything I could get my hands on, in empty #10 vegetable cans using a piece of plastic cooking film over the top of the cans and placing a rubber band around the top to create the air lock. Crude but effective, never lost a batch. By the way, loved the reference to Lost in Space. My favorite show as a kid. Yeah I'm an old dude. Anyway thank y'all for the interesting and informative content.

I'm racking my blueberry mead tonight. It's been in secondary since the 5th with blueberry it smells yummy so far

i'm currently finishing a mango-pineapple mead in primary, getting ready for secondary, and i just started an apple wine i am going to fortify with schnapps and back sweeten with maple syrup. The next step will be a peach cider, and i will follow your method for sure. this video is great, explains everything step by step and this is great! Been brewing beers for years but relatively new to wines (made one show mead a couple years ago), i love the somewhat more simple method to make wines, just the sourcing of materials is sometimes more expensive but the end result is always worth it.

Great to know we can pasteurize in the bubbler

Big glass of this wine, lemon slice and some soda water. That's gonna be true summer drink. Five stars.

Thanks for the correction at 10:00. My brain was melting down.

Great. Now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the week.

That's just a thumbs up right there! You know what you said 😉

I am a month into a strawberry wine already; frozen Strawberries, Some dried strawberries and 4 tablespoons of Strawberry Rhubarb preserves. It is wonderful. Stabilized and back sweetened today. Bottle in 2 weeks or so. I may have used Demerara sugar in my first attempt, but did not in this one.

Strawberry Rhubarb is my favourite! 9 lbs rhubarb and 5 lbs berries for 23 litre batch. ❤

Loved the Alton Brown reference. I loved watching his Good Eats show, have made his marinated turkey (amazing) and have 2 books he wrote. :)

That Jörg refrence was epic lol. I had no idea you guys liked him. I've been a fan of his for almost a decade now. What a beast.

I always dissolve my sugar in hot water first these days, let it cool to room temperature - then add to the fermenter with the fruit before taking the SG reading. You can adjust gently afterwards.

Recently I've been doing the calculations with both dry numbers, 1.000 & .999 And I believe it puts that little extra something with the makeup of the make/model/brew your creating. So if all is up to par with nutrients/food for the yeast I've been noticing a .999 outcome so just wanted to throw that out into the RU-vidosphere and to the bestest teachers around. Thanks again for this amazing concoction of magic smile makers.

Ive made 3 batches of mead 2 traditional one vikings blood. Will be starting a strawberry and another orange meade this week..

Yummy. And strawberry always seems to go orange in color but knowing that I don't stress lol.

Thanks for this great recipe. My jamum wine turned out rich and delicious. There's no cardamon available in my country so I only put in 2 out of the 3 spices, yet the wine tastes absolotely wonderful! The only thing I can report is that I found it very sweet, so it's better served as a dessert wine. Next time I try it, I'll probably reduce the quantity of sugar by a third to get more of a semi-sweet result which is my preferred taste. Cheers, Dylan.

Sunday i started my very own peach wine from peaches i picked from the farm that were about to go south. This amuses me because i too had a few "wth?" Moments while prepping the must

my friends parents own a fruit farm...strawberries,blueberries, raspberries and cherries

Gotta add yeast 👍 In this hobby to assemble a controlled rot.

Strawberry Rhubarb would be a great strawberry combo. It is my mom's favorite pie flavor so I intend to have a batch aged for birthday next year.

The sling shot channel reference 😂….. that was amazing

34:05 Yeah, looks good. 37:29 Even better 🥂 Thanks for the inspiring lesson on how to use fruit.

I haven't brewed anything since early 2021 or watched brewing videos in a long time. I went back to school and there was no time for hobbies or anything fun. To be honest, I lost interest in making wine or mead and considered giving away all my equipment when I finally graduated. This video renewed my interest making wine again. I'm glad I didn't get rid of things. Now to wait for the strawberries to be in season here.

The one note strawberry flavor might make a great base for a fruit salad dressing...

Maybe fortify with Irish cream to get the complexity without subtracting from the strawberries. But I'd add Irish cream to anything if possible lol

Ayyye! You started that one on my birthday 🎉😂

always make simple syrup and would add that to my brews after... may affect the abv. but i find it to be (my) best way to sweeten a brew