The first thing that you need to do in order to make strawberry wine is to gather together the ingredients that you need.  These ingredients include 7 pounds of whole, freshly picked strawberries that have been washed and hulled; and 2 gallons of boiling water; some lemon juice; and 5 pounds of sugar.

When you are preparing to make straberry wine, you need to first mash the strawberries together in a large pot.  Once these are mashed, you will want to cover them with boiling water.  After adding the lemon juice, you will want to spend 2 minutes quickly stirring the mixture together.  You can then set this mixture aside in a dark, cool area, covered with a linen cloth.  Make sure that you stir it everyday for a week.  Then, when the week is over you will want to pour the concoction through double layered cheesecloth into a large bowl so that you can discard of the strawberry pulp.  Next, mix the strawberry liquid together with the sugar, stirring them constantly until the sugar is dissolved.  You can then pour this into a container and let it stand for another week, stirring it daily.

After the second week is over, you should pour the strawberry juice into a gallon sized, glass wine bottle.  Put a loose cork into the bottle and let it rest in a cool, dark place for 3 months.  At this point, the wine should no longer be bubbling.  It should be perfectly clear.  This is how you know that you can pour it into individual wine bottles, cork them and allow them to age for a year.

Why Strawberry Wine Is Good

Strawberry wine ranges in taste from semi sweet to lightly sweet, sour or completely sweet.  There are great benefits to your health whenever you drink any type of strawberry wine.  Not only are strawberries low in calories and fats, they are also rich in fiber, folate, antioxidants, potassium and vitamin C.  You can also use strawberry wine in cereals, salads, yogurts, muffins, cakes and desserts. Of course, you can also enjoy this wine, partially frozen.

Strawberry Wine Basics

There are some basic principle for making this beverage that will help insure success and good taste.  The first thing to know is that the wine will take several months to age to its best flavor.  A person can not cook up a batch to serve one night but will have to plan for the lengthy fermenting process. 

Another basic for strawberry wine is that the strawberry’s need to be vine ripened for the best taste.  Supermarket strawberries are often picked green, as with much of the produce, for better shipping but this does make the flavor of the berry decrease considerably.  A person can grow their own strawberries or they can purchase from a local farm where the berries are picked when ripe.  There are even some recipes that call for frozen strawberries because these berries are usually more flavorful than green picked berries. 

It is also important for a person to understand all the aspects of home cooking and fermentation to make sure that the strawberry wine is well made without spoiling or bacterial growth.  The winemaker will want to use clean, sanitized containers and will want to make sure to keep and cook the ingredients at the correct temperature.  The enjoyment of drinking the wine should not be ruined by unsanitary cooking. 

Strawberry Wine Recipes

The best recipes usually come from a grandmother or another older person.  These people have tested and tried recipes that they used for years to impress family and friends.  A person can ask around for someone with a secret recipe who may be willing to pass it on to a new generation. 

Other strawberry wine recipes can be found at several sites on the internet.  Www.winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques5.asp has a few different recipes for a person to choose from.  The site www.eckraus.com/wine-making-strawberry.html has a great article on making wine including a recipe.  About.com also has a strawberry wine recipe along with other sites a person may find useful.  A person can try one of the sites or can easily do their own research to find a good recipe for strawberry wine.