Strawberry spirit recipe.

[Plumby]

Hi gang :greetings-waveyellow:
With the current strawberry crisis going on Woolworths have strawberries for $1.50 a punnet where I live.
Now I want to support farmers and have been buying strawberries for eating but I'm wanting to take advantage of this and make some strawberry spirit. I've done the strawberry panty dropper before but I'm wanting to make a pot stilled strawberry spirit, so if anyone has a recipe that they want to share id really appreciate it.
I figure if no one is eating them we might as well ferment them and still support our farmers that way.

[Sam.]

Don't have a recipe sorry mate but I did think the exact same thing when I saw some producers on the news emptying out truck loads on the ground :crying-blue:

[Plumby]

Its a shame really, couple of idiots have brought a whole industry to its knees.
I'm thinking 10-15kg strawberries 5 kg sugar in a 60 litre fermenter and using a champagne yeast might work. Do 3 or 4 gens the do a spirit run. I'll store the berries in the freezer.

[Chief]

I suggest doing the same as the mullberry recipe in the fruits and veg list of mashing and fermenting. I usually do 3 or 4 gens with mullberry each year. ~10kg fruit for gen 1 and and extra 4-6kg for gen 2+.
I usually keep the first three gens and mix all together then oak some schnapps some. Have done up to 2nd gens the same way with strawberry last season when the local farm had jam berries cheap.
Coming from a bubbler the flavour was good. Still subtle but nice oaked on french oak. Not sure RE pot still and strip and spirit runs.

[db1979]

Grabbed some myself today to support the farmers but didn't occur to me to do a ferment. Pickings look good though to get some real nice ripe ones, possibly with lots of flavour. Usually by the time I get to the strawberries they've been picked over and only the dodgy looking ones are left.

[EziTasting]

Worthwhile cause!

Really love the exploration of our natural resources!

[wynnum1]

If you buy your strawberries from retailer at the cheap price very little goes to the farmer best to try and buy directly.

[Plumby]

Brought off the local veg shop who buy direct off the farmer. Settled on 12kg berries with 8kg white sugar in a 60 litre wash. Fermenting with 3 packs of Mangrove Jacks champagne yeast.

[EziTasting]

If you buy your strawberries from retailer at the cheap price very little goes to the farmer best to try and buy directly.

Unfortunately ther are No farmers within koo-ee of wher I live so the supermarket it is... that’ll hopefully efltranslate to sales to the farmers down the track...

[wynnum1]

The farmers are selling for $2 a kilo that must be how little they are getting if not dumped .

[sicksadsam]

Brought off the local veg shop who buy direct off the farmer. Settled on 12kg berries with 8kg white sugar in a 60 litre wash. Fermenting with 3 packs of Mangrove Jacks champagne yeast.

Nice, keen to hear how it turns out!

The whole strawberry fiasco is messed up, the worst part is the copycats :handgestures-thumbdown:

[Plumby]

It sux how a couple of fucking assholes can bring a whole industry to its knees, I love strawberries but cant eat a lot so the best way I could think to help the farmers out was to buy lots and ferment them into strawberry shine.
Sort of a win-win situation

[dans.brew]

:text-+1:
It will take a long time for the industry to recover from this. Apart from that it just plain takes the wind out of your sails... the agriculture industry in this great country produces some of the finest produce around the world and to have a small number of idiots undo years worth of blood, sweat and tears in a matter of minutes is just not right! :naughty:
Could say a lot more, but it doesn't undo the damage. My thoughts go out to the farmers affected... its not fun when you get the end of the year and your income is taken away (some of it anyway).

[wynnum1]

Strawberry growing is a very intense farming if you look at Queensland government site there are 150 farms in Queensland and 600 hectares and 30,000 tons of strawberries before the contamination there was no market for most of the strawberries and at $1 or $4 a kilo what was the farmer getting payed and if look at processed food they are using cheaper imported strawberries even when manufactured in Australia only using local sugar and because mostly sugar looks like local product.
They are working on robots to pick the strawberries because of the cost of labor as picking strawberries is a shit job so in future the farms may get bigger and have very few workers.

[RC Al]

Woollies have taken sewing needles off the shelf... FFS...

There was already an over supply, Ill put my tinfoil hat on and hazzard a guess that either a foreign power, organized crime gang or the farming mafia are behind this to reduce the number of players

[wynnum1]

Or a property developer there used to be the strawberry festival at the Redlands now the farms are houses.

[Plumby]

Ok guys here is the recipe and run strategy I've settled on.
First gen: 50 litre wash, I used 10kg very ripe strawberries with all white parts and leaves removed, I also removed any bad spots on the berries.
Cut the berries up dropping the cut segments straight into my 60 litre fermenter, while I was doing this I brought 6 litres of water to the boil.
While the water was boiling I dumped 8kg white sugar into my fermenter then dumped the boiling water onto the sugar and few berries that were in the fermenter. Stirred to dissolve the sugar and let sit while I cut the rest of my berries up.
Once i had all the berries done I topped my fermenter up to 50 litres, stirred for a good 5 minutes with a paint stirrer in a drill and added 3 packs of Mangrove Jacks CL23 champagne yeast. Twice a day I have been stirring with my paint stirrer to break up the berries more.
Now i dont do sg and fg as my hydrometer smashed years ago and i make rum so they are no use to me anyway.

2nd and 3rd gen: Once fermentation of gen 1 has finished ill run all the wash through my keg boiler as a striping run, leaving behind the yeast bed and berries in the fermenter. While this is coming to the boil ill defrost 5kg of frozen berries that i have cut up and frozen. When they are defrosted and the strip run is finished ill add 5-6 litres of hot backset the defrosted berries and another 8kg white sugar to the fermenter and stir with my paint mixer untill i get to 50 litres. Ferment then do another striping run and repeat for gen three.
Once have the low wines from 3 strip runs ill do a low and slow spirit run through my pot.

Let me know what you think, im open to criticism just dont be a total dick about it :laughing-rolling:

[bluc]

Any reason for champagne yeast rather than fruit (ec118) type yeast :-B looks good look forward to your thoughts on the brandy..

[db1979]

Cool, how will you age it?

[Plumby]

Not sure how ill age it yet, im thinking on toasted but not chared French oak. I have to get in contact with 5star this week.
I went with that champagne yeast because it is a fruit yeast but it ferments out dry up to 18% abv