Tinned Strawberry

[Stinky]

Hi all

I followed the recipe for tinned strawberry wine and everything went ok but when the sg got to bout 1.020ish the wine lost it's colour. It tastes and smells like strawberry but the colour is more like a white wine, eg chardonnay etc. Any idea why this might have happened?

[lockwood1956]

hmmmm

couple of questions...

has it been in direct sunlight?.


and what yeast did you use?

[Richard S]

I was talkin to Mark about this earlier on and told him to post this question on here. AFAIK there has been no direct sunlight, he possibly used gen purpose yeast.

[Rich]

Could it have been the Youngs so called super yeast? My ribena wine turned pale, which I used this cheapo yeast in. Used quality stuff ever since mind...


Rich

[lockwood1956]

Also meant to ask, how much colour has it lost?

it doesnt stay strawberry coloured, but goes a light brown/straw/orange colour.

[Richard S]

Like Mark says, it looks like a normal white wine, more a straw colour than strawberry. The batch I did is still fine after 6 months and I used the dreaded youngs gp yeast.

[lockwood1956]

Well sometimes wine musts have a mind of their own, Wine is alive and so will evolve in many different ways.

Any variables in recipe/method between your batch and Mark's?


what temperature was it fermented at?
was a yeast starter used?
any additions/tweaks to the original recipe?


my latest batch is the reddest yet, sometimes it ends up lighter than others.....

[Mamgiowl]

Mine is a sort of pale pinky/apricotty and I only ever use GP yeast.

Did you filter it? Sometimes that strips the colour a bit.

Does it still taste like wine, and is it comensurate in taste with the final gravity reading?



(Coo, I dunno, you ask a question and instead of an answer you get loads of questions back. Tuh!)

[Hippie]

You didn't add any sulphite at this point, right?

[StockeyDAW]

I find Strawberries are very peculiar that way. Much different than Raspberries that hold the color. I have used fresh strawberries a number of times and they start out fine in the primary and secondary fermentation stage (alcohol production) and maintain the nice red color. Then after fining and clearing the surprise; the color changes to a golden - amber (coppery red) and then slightly lessens as it ages. These colors have also changed from different strawberry's crops and it may also be something to do with the kind (variety) of strawberry being used? -- some strawberries are red all the way through some are red on the outside and more whitish on the inside - possibly the juices are also clear in some and more red or pinkish in others? Interesting query. DAW

[Hippie]

Good points, DAW. Will increasing the sulphite a tad and starting fermentation faster help keep some of the color? Maybe add a tad sulphite when transferred to glass to finish fermenting? Might just need to add food coloring to it before bottling.

[Richard S]

Some good stuff here guys, thanks. I will make sure Mark reads this later.

If anything, the only thing I can think of that any of you have mentioned is the fermentation temp, it could have been a bit on the warm side.

Cheers

[StockeyDAW]

Some good stuff here guys, thanks. I will make sure Mark reads this later.

If anything, the only thing I can think of that any of you have mentioned is the fermentation temp, it could have been a bit on the warm side.

Cheers

Good points, DAW. Will increasing the sulphite a tad and starting fermentation faster help keep some of the color? Maybe add a tad sulphite when transferred to glass to finish fermenting? Might just need to add food coloring to it before bottling.

Ya I guess that some have been using food coloring to get back some of the color. I have always used sulphite because of the fresh berries that I use initially in the primary fermentation process and then more added after the fining stage. It seems that the red pigment color is lost during the clearing - does the color pigments drop with all the lees and debris in the young wine? My question would be why not in the raspberry it is going through the same process?

I always get a good fast start during primary ferment; approximately 70-75 F degrees temperature - maybe a cooler temperature would save the color pigments? Is it something to do with the many seeds in the strawberries? fermenting on the pulp for to long? Interesting comments. We need a food Scientist? Cheers DAW

[StockeyDAW]

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/ss01/anthocyanin.html

Here is some very interesting high tech stuff - the explanation for the degradation of the strawberry red pigmentation is within these biochemistry studies. If you are able to totally understand great for you. If you could put it into layman's terms please let us know. Cheers DAW

[Stinky]

thanks for the response, helped alot