# The Strawberry



## Johnd (Jun 7, 2019)

Admittedly, I'm not much of a fruit winemaker, but every now and then I do dabble, and decided earlier this year to do a strawberry wine. I live about 15 miles from Ponchatoula, LA, home of the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival every year, an area well renowned for its strawberry production. 

I bought a bunch of really nice strawberries in bulk from a grower, cut the leaves off, halved and froze them a while back. They're at home thawing right now. The plan is to make wine from the strawberries, no water added, and I have 100 pounds, which I'm pretty sure should get me 6 gallons, though I don't know from experience, anyone know?

All recipe stuff is under control for adjustments to pH, TA and BRIX, as well as yeast, nutrients, tannin, etc.. Plan to use Lallzyme EX-V for breakdown of the fruit, and plenty pectic enzyme to work on the pectic haze ahead of time, but just wondering if anyone here has done straight strawberry with no water and has any tips / best practices to get the must prepared...Run it through the press first? Run it through the crusher? Chop it up with a paint stirrer? Mush it up with my punchdown tool? Any thoughts?


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## cmason1957 (Jun 7, 2019)

I always add just a (like a gallon or 1.5 gallon) of nearly boiling hot water to which I added some sugar to break down over the top of my frozen strawberries to help retain the red color of strawberries and then some tannin in the primary for the same reason. I am thinking next time I make a strawberry to do it more as a strawberry flavor added to a very bland (on purpose) white wine, like a Chardonel, maybe a Niagra, or a Chardonney kit, made to a fairly higher than normal alcohol. The idea being that the strawberry juice added after the fact would bring the alcohol back to a normal level.


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## Johnd (Jun 7, 2019)

Looks pretty good after thawing, let them sit outside in the sweltering heat today, got em up to 70 before loading the fermenter, sitting in their own juice. Got some EX-V on board, along with a bunch of pectic, some tannins, and some bentonite. About to boost the BRIX up to 22 and check the pH. Prolly let it sit til the morning and load some D47 into the mix.


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## Johnd (Jun 7, 2019)

Got the must chapped up to 22 BRIX, and adjusted the pH down from 3.55 to 3.45 with a little acid blend. As I was working with it, stirring and mixing, it really broke down into a lovely deep red viscous must. I’m going to skip the sulfite and pitch the yeast tonight.


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## CDrew (Jun 7, 2019)

Interesting how much it broke down with the pectic enzymes. You went from fruit to a slurry. Very cool.

Good luck!


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## Cxwgfamily (Jun 8, 2019)

Johnd, I have a little different approach. I add only 3.5 to 4.0 lbs of strawberries per gal of wine. Obviously, sugar, water, acid blend, tannin, and petic enzyme. Won bronze at this years competition. But I add 1.5 lbs. of Dates and 1.5 lbs. of white raisins per gallon of wine. Just a thought.

When you get it bottled and drinking it, shoot me a note, we can meet compare results. I am just down the road in BR.

cxwgfamily


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## Johnd (Jun 8, 2019)

Cxwgfamily said:


> When you get it bottled and drinking it, shoot me a note, we can meet compare results. I am just down the road in BR.
> cxwgfamily



Will do that!


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## Scooter68 (Jun 8, 2019)

Man That is beautiful looking - For me it would be soooo hard not to just dip out a ladle full of that to put on some ice cream or suck it down straight.


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## Johnd (Jun 9, 2019)

Scooter68 said:


> Man That is beautiful looking - For me it would be soooo hard not to just dip out a ladle full of that to put on some ice cream or suck it down straight.



Well, I’m not saying that I didn’t taste it while making the sugar additions and chill some in a cup for later..........


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## Ignoble Grape (Jun 9, 2019)

Oooh! Strawberry season has finally arrived. I'm inspired, JohnD. Isn't the must the most divine strawberry smell ever???

I just bottled last year's and it is one of the better I've made - certainly the best fruit wine. I'm going to the farmer's market to get some more berries tomorrow. Need to make a 5 gl batch this time around, only made 2 last time and I don't think it's going to last me through June.

As a side note - the majority of what I bottled was straight strawberry, added lemon zest, oaked lightly. Heavy strawberry nose, did not back sweeten, so it's dry. I want to enter it the local county fair, but I want to drink it, too... Fair's in August, though, and as I said, not sure it's gonna last through June.

Ended up with an odd amount after racking and blended 3 bottles with a fruity commercial rose - yummy.

Cheers to summer!


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## porkchopmessiah (Jun 10, 2019)

Just about done picking mine, had Cabot and Honeyoye... got over 60 lbs, I should be able to get 15 gallon ez this year


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## Johnd (Jun 10, 2019)

Good caps yesterday evening and this morning, if you can call them that. There’s almost nothing solid left in the fermenter, just a viscous, carbonated slurry, fermenting very well so far. Bout time for some nutrients.


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## Johnd (Jun 10, 2019)

Double post.


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## porkchopmessiah (Jun 10, 2019)

Johnd said:


> Admittedly, I'm not much of a fruit winemaker, but every now and then I do dabble, and decided earlier this year to do a strawberry wine. I live about 15 miles from Ponchatoula, LA, home of the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival every year, an area well renowned for its strawberry production.
> 
> I bought a bunch of really nice strawberries in bulk from a grower, cut the leaves off, halved and froze them a while back. They're at home thawing right now. The plan is to make wine from the strawberries, no water added, and I have 100 pounds, which I'm pretty sure should get me 6 gallons, though I don't know from experience, anyone know?
> 
> All recipe stuff is under control for adjustments to pH, TA and BRIX, as well as yeast, nutrients, tannin, etc.. Plan to use Lallzyme EX-V for breakdown of the fruit, and plenty pectic enzyme to work on the pectic haze ahead of time, but just wondering if anyone here has done straight strawberry with no water and has any tips / best practices to get the must prepared...Run it through the press first? Run it through the crusher? Chop it up with a paint stirrer? Mush it up with my punchdown tool? Any thoughts?


My recipe calls for 17 lbs per gallon....I use about 20...sounds like you have more than enough, lol


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## Johnd (Jun 10, 2019)

porkchopmessiah said:


> My recipe calls for 17 lbs per gallon....I use about 20...sounds like you have more than enough, lol



Yup, not a single drop of water added....it’ll be interesting to see how many gallons of wine come from 100# of berries.


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## porkchopmessiah (Jun 10, 2019)

Johnd said:


> Yup, not a single drop of water added....it’ll be interesting to see how many gallons of wine come from 100# of berries.


let me know as well...I grow my own so it have limitations, the wife wont allow me to crave of any more yard to plant..
curious though what your yield will be


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## Johnd (Jun 10, 2019)

porkchopmessiah said:


> let me know as well...I grow my own so it have limitations, the wife wont allow me to crave of any more yard to plant..
> curious though what your yield will be



I’ll certainly post the yield, looks pretty good so far. Was hoping to net out 6 gallons in the end, looking like it’ll be a good bit more in the end. There will be no pressing, there’s nothing left to speak of, probably do a little straining, then into carboys for settling / racking.


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## Johnd (Jun 11, 2019)

Hit the strawberry with a combo of Fermaid K and DAP on Sunday, D-47's not a big nutrient hog, so the dosage was kept on the moderate side. Fermentation has been proceeding as well as possible, just some little thin caps on a very thick must with lots of particulates in it. Looks and smells wonderful, no off odors at all, good, clean ferment. Down to 1.020 this morning, so it'll be ready to move shortly.


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## ibglowin (Jun 11, 2019)

Yea, a big ol scoop of that must on some vanilla ice cream........

How does it smell? Always a good sign when you just want to dunk your head in the bucket.


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## Johnd (Jun 11, 2019)

ibglowin said:


> Yea, a big ol scoop of that must on some vanilla ice cream........
> 
> How does it smell? Always a good sign when you just want to dunk your head in the bucket.



It smells just like you'd want to ladle some onto vanilla ice cream, but then you couldn't drive after you ate it..........the ABV just starting to be evident, but in a good way. Really thinking that at least part of this wine should be bottled dry, if not all of it, just need to get down the road to be able to do some taste testing with different levels of sweetness / acidity, etc..........


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## ibglowin (Jun 11, 2019)

Everything I have ever read on country wines is sometimes they just don't won't to clear. Hope you have clear sailing and clear wine in short order.


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## Johnd (Jun 11, 2019)

ibglowin said:


> Everything I have ever read on country wines is sometimes they just don't won't to clear. Hope you have clear sailing and clear wine in short order.



Read the same thing in particular about strawberry, double dosed it in primary with pectic enzyme. In the same vein, had left over bentonite from some WE kits, used two of those in the fermenter as well. Have a whole bottle of chitosan at the ready, so confidence is high. The Buon Vino Super Jet is also only a cabinet door away..................


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## Johnd (Jun 12, 2019)

Down below 1.000, decided to go ahead and rack the strawberry. Did some straining and settling before starting the racking, got about 5 or so gallons of reasonably clear wine, and about 5 gallons of liquid with suspended particulates. Still a bit active, it’ll clear up a bunch as activity slows and the lees settle out, then we’ll see how much wine is left after racking.....


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## Scooter68 (Jun 12, 2019)

That's looking really good there johnd. Bet once you get the coarse stuff to settle out a bit you'll get back to at least 5+ gallons. As to clearing I hope that goes quickly for ya. 
Know you already know about it but once the coarse stuff settles a bit, I'd put the clearest of it into the fridge. I've had really good luck with that speeding up the settling out that way.


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## Johnd (Jun 12, 2019)

Scooter68 said:


> That's looking really good there johnd. Bet once you get the coarse stuff to settle out a bit you'll get back to at least 5+ gallons. As to clearing I hope that goes quickly for ya.
> Know you already know about it but once the coarse stuff settles a bit, I'd put the clearest of it into the fridge. I've had really good luck with that speeding up the settling out that way.



Still fermenting a bit, but starting to settle a bit. Really hoping to get to 6 gallons, but will just have to take what the berries give. Once I’ve got it racked down to some relatively clean wine, it’ll get sulfited, vacuum degassed, and go into the wine room. Chitosan may get added at that time as well, and I’m not scared to whip out the super jet either.....


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## Scooter68 (Jun 13, 2019)

I wish I had the skill and nerve to build a centrifuge to separate the solids. Something that could hold a full gallon container. It could really speed up the process but all I keep visioning a gallon of sediment and wine sprayed around a room. ( I know .... negative thinking.)


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## Johnd (Jun 13, 2019)

AF was pretty much at a standstill this morning, SG bottomed out on the low 90’s, so I hooked up the trusty vacuum pump and degassed the carboys to help settle them. It stirred up the previous clearing, happy to see it much further along and clearer this evening than it was previously. I’ll get it off the lees and into a right sized vessel(s) this weekend.


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## Scooter68 (Jun 13, 2019)

What size are those carboys? 5, 6, 6.5 ?


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## Johnd (Jun 13, 2019)

Scooter68 said:


> What size are those carboys? 5, 6, 6.5 ?



Sixes, though they hold just a slight bit more than six.


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## Johnd (Jun 14, 2019)

The way it's looking, the strawberry wine will just barely fill a 6 gallon carboy, or be just a bit shy. Thinking a nice, dark rose' would be a good choice to top up with, any thoughts?? Don't want to add anything with sugar in it just yet...........


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## Jal5 (Jun 14, 2019)

John are you still using the HF vacuum pump? If so can you post a pic of your setup next time it’s in use? I have a coupon and am deciding if I should use it and need a setup to copy! Thx
Hoe


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## sour_grapes (Jun 14, 2019)

Jal5 said:


> John are you still using the HF vacuum pump? If so can you post a pic of your setup next time it’s in use? I have a coupon and am deciding if I should use it and need a setup to copy! Thx
> Hoe



Here, you can print out these extra ones!


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## Ignoble Grape (Jun 14, 2019)

Johnd said:


> The way it's looking, the strawberry wine will just barely fill a 6 gallon carboy, or be just a bit shy. Thinking a nice, dark rose' would be a good choice to top up with, any thoughts?? Don't want to add anything with sugar in it just yet...........


My Rose addition was amazing! I think you're on track with that train o' thought.


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## Johnd (Jun 15, 2019)

Racked off of the gross lees, sulfited, and degassed the strawberry this morning. Didn’t taste it, but it smelled very nice, good color as well. Ended up with 6.5 gallons of pretty clear wine, it’s got a bit of clearing to do, but it’s very clear for a wine that was started a week ago. Was going to hit it with some chitosan, but mine had some discolored, viscous blobs in it, trashed it and will order some new stuff. So 100 ponds of strawberries will get you 6 gallons of wine, no water added. 


For @Jal5 , here’s some vacuum pump details. Below is the pump, you can see the black vacuum line coming off of one of the two ports on the pump, goes to a tee, where the pressure gauge is attached. The clear line goes to a reservoir, see next photo. 


The reservoir came from a brake bleeder kit, you could use a bottle if you like, just something to prevent sucking wine into the pump. 


The line then goes to a fitting in the hole of a universal bung. 


Closeup of the fitting.


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## Jal5 (Jun 18, 2019)

Thx for that explanation! I think this will be my next addition to this hobby. The old back ain’t what it used to be. 
Joe


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## Kraffty (Jun 20, 2019)

looks like it's going to be an excellent batch of Strawberry wine. I had an all strawberry batch that tasted like eating a spoon full of preserves. I think my favorite thing to do with it was throw some fresh berries in a glass along with some of the wine then top with some Skeeter Pee to make up a "Strawberry Lemonade", big favorite in the summertime. Keep up the updates.
Mike


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## Johnd (Jun 20, 2019)

Kraffty said:


> looks like it's going to be an excellent batch of Strawberry wine. I had an all strawberry batch that tasted like eating a spoon full of preserves. I think my favorite thing to do with it was throw some fresh berries in a glass along with some of the wine then top with some Skeeter Pee to make up a "Strawberry Lemonade", big favorite in the summertime. Keep up the updates.
> Mike



That sound good, have to give it a try!!


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## Johnd (Jun 27, 2019)

Few racks and some Dualfine / pectic later, the strawberry was looking pretty clear. Pulled out the BV Super Jet for a little filtering session. Ran it through the coarse pads, then the polishing pads, she’s sparkling like a diamond. Lost the 1/2 gallon to racking / filtering, but have a completely full 6 gallon carboy of 100% strawberry wine. 

Had about 150 ml left over, wifey and I did some sampling, sweetening, etc, pretty good stuff. We may try to sweeten and bottle this weekend, if we do, I’m probably skipping sorbate and sterile filtering. At least that’s the current plan......


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## Cxwgfamily (Jun 28, 2019)

that is a beautiful carboy of wine. Remember my offer to get together to try each others wine and review recipe and procedure. probably later in the fall.


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## Cxwgfamily (Jun 28, 2019)

OH, by the way, the BR Wine Makers group place third in over all medals in this year's Winemaker Magazine homemade wine competition. We won 17 medals total. We are feeling pretty full on ourselves right now but we are getting down to our summer projects and that has a way of bringing us back to earth. Feel free to join us anytime. track our facebook page, Baton Rouge Wine Makers


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## Kraffty (Jun 28, 2019)

Keeping that color is impressive, more often than not most attempts seem to end up some degree of Orange color. Bet it tastes wonderful. It's also supposed to have a fairly short life span, enjoy it often this summer and maybe some next year.
Mike


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## Johnd (Jun 28, 2019)

Cxwgfamily said:


> OH, by the way, the BR Wine Makers group place third in over all medals in this year's Winemaker Magazine homemade wine competition. We won 17 medals total. We are feeling pretty full on ourselves right now but we are getting down to our summer projects and that has a way of bringing us back to earth. Feel free to join us anytime. track our facebook page, Baton Rouge Wine Makers



I'm a member of the page and see all of the posts. If you guys are interested in making wine from grapes this year, I'm bringing some in from California and own a crusher / destemmer...................


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## Johnd (Jun 28, 2019)

Kraffty said:


> Keeping that color is impressive, more often than not most attempts seem to end up some degree of Orange color. Bet it tastes wonderful. It's also supposed to have a fairly short life span, enjoy it often this summer and maybe some next year.
> Mike



Mike, it looks very red in the carboy, in a glass or running through the racking tube, you can see the twinge of orange color, I think it's just part of the gig..........


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## Kantuckid (Jul 13, 2019)

Deanna Carter singing Strawberry Wine & a chilled glass?
I love strawberries but never tried a wine from them. I will say that they don't like being frozen for long! We pick then clean and dry on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet, dust/sprinkle very lightly w/sugar, then freeze hard and bag em. Even then they dry easily in freezer storage so if you have a bunch, eat or make wine soon enough!


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## Johnd (Jul 14, 2019)

I ran the strawberry wine through the Buon Vino with the sterile pads about a week ago, and sweetened it, no sorbate. Today, seeing no activity at all, I went ahead and bottled it. My first filter in lieu of sorbate on sweet wine. It really came out fantastic, should get it capsuled and labeled later today. Hope they don’t explode. Think I’ll leave them standing upright on the countertop / sink for a bit.....


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## joeswine (Jul 14, 2019)

VERY NICE COLOR,VERY NICE,,THE LABELS ARE VERY CLASSY..


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## montanarick (Jul 15, 2019)

very nice labels!


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## Scooter68 (Jul 15, 2019)

Very nice color and labels. Ya done gooooood johnd


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## mainshipfred (Jul 16, 2019)

I have never back sweetened. The few times I made a wine on the sweet side I stop the fermentation by putting it in a chest freezer then filter it with a .5 micron once it cleared. I know it's not absolute but I haven't had any issues either.


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## Johnd (Jul 16, 2019)

mainshipfred said:


> I have never back sweetened. The few times I made a wine on the sweet side I stop the fermentation by putting it in a chest freezer then filter it with a .5 micron once it cleared. I know it's not absolute but I haven't had any issues either.



Im confident in the science behind it, but doing it a few times boosts confidence in the science. I’d hate to muff a batch that way........


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## Scooter68 (Jul 16, 2019)

Keep them away from each other and your other wine for a few weeks. 
(Growing my dad made some homemade Root Beer - clearly the yeast remained active or something went wrong. A week or two later while eating supper we heard a couple of muffled explosions. Dad walked out to the garage, came back a few minutes later with disappointment written all over his face. The explosion(s?) resulted in sympathetic detonation/distraction of ALL bottles.


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## porkchopmessiah (Sep 12, 2019)

Well had to clear some room in the basement for the fall grapes...gonna wrap up the strawberry and bottle when friends come over for the fall crush on sunday


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## mainshipfred (Jan 17, 2020)

John, in another thread you mentioned even after filtering with a .5 filter pad you had some sediment after bottling. If I'm reading this thread correctly it appears you bottled 1 1/2 months after you started the fermentation. I have a peach I want to filter with the .5 pads that I started in July sometime. Is it possible the sediment was a result of bottling too early, I can't imagine I will have the same problem after 6 months or will I?


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## Johnd (Jan 17, 2020)

mainshipfred said:


> John, in another thread you mentioned even after filtering with a .5 filter pad you had some sediment after bottling. If I'm reading this thread correctly it appears you bottled 1 1/2 months after you started the fermentation. I have a peach I want to filter with the .5 pads that I started in July sometime. Is it possible the sediment was a result of bottling too early, I can't imagine I will have the same problem after 6 months or will I?



Fred, can't tell you definitively if 6 months will do the trick, but I know for the strawberry, I didn't wait long enough. I'd think that waiting a total of 6 months, and at least a couple of those months after filtering / back sweetening would put your wine in better shape than my wine. It was just beautiful at bottling time, and the wine had been sitting in the carboy in the wine room to clear since fermentation ceased. Not 30 days after bottling, a light dusting appeared on the bottom of the bottles......all of them. I can only assume that there were still some ongoing chemical changes that caused that light dusting to come out of solution. Could be that I should've waited a little longer after back sweetening to bottle. Lesson learned...........again!!


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## mainshipfred (Jan 17, 2020)

Johnd said:


> Fred, can't tell you definitively if 6 months will do the trick, but I know for the strawberry, I didn't wait long enough. I'd think that waiting a total of 6 months, and at least a couple of those months after filtering / back sweetening would put your wine in better shape than my wine. It was just beautiful at bottling time, and the wine had been sitting in the carboy in the wine room to clear since fermentation ceased. Not 30 days after bottling, a light dusting appeared on the bottom of the bottles......all of them. I can only assume that there were still some ongoing chemical changes that caused that light dusting to come out of solution. Could be that I should've waited a little longer after back sweetening to bottle. Lesson learned...........again!!



Thanks, I don't think those "agains!!" ever stop, we just hope they slow down a little.


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## Johnd (Jan 17, 2020)

mainshipfred said:


> Thanks, I don't think those "agains!!" ever stop, we just hope they slow down a little.



Nope, the older I get, the more lessons learned I forget........


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## stickman (Jan 17, 2020)

I agree there, you start to focus on a particular area or concept, then completely forget about the hundreds of other details you already know, sooner or later you get bitten.


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