John, I can't respond to the questions on your wine kits, but I have made strawberry wine a number of times. You said the wine was 4 months old, you racked it once, and you were not to happy with it. That may be a little young to expect much, especially if you only racked it once. Usually, I bottle my strawberry at about 7 months old and it has been racked 2-4 times depending on how well it clears. Young wines usually doesn't taste the best to begin with. It is kind of hard to describe the yeasty, alcohol kick which you can taste in young wines. If you rack the wine, and give the unfavorable stuff suspended in the wine to settle out, and then give the wine a chance to age, you'll find the wine will taste much different later on. The yeasty taste, and the alcohol taste will mellow out over time. Since you can't give us the % alcohol by volume, nor what your starting and ending SG was - its a bit hard for me suggest what else could be wrong, although there are other possibilities. May I suggest you hang in there and don't give up. Learning how to make wine you will like does take time, but it worth the effort. If I might suggest you take a look at Jack Keller's site homemade winemaking site information there. As to your current strawberry batch, if you have not bottled it yet, I would rack it again, make sure it is topped up and let it age some more. Do you like dry wine? Bottle at 7 months, wait another month for bottle shock to wear off, and try a bottle at eight months. Then wait another month or two, and try another bottle. Maybe compare the recipe you had with the one on Jack's site, see how things worked out, and try again. Good-luck. Darlene Wisconsin
