"Tom" > wrote in message
...
> Two years in a row I am ending up with a strawberry wine with a wonderful
> aroma, taste and color but at a whopping 14%+ alcohol, way to hot for a
> country wine. Still not sure what I'm going to do with'em. Thinking
about
> blending with some of my reisling from 2003? My wife likes that idea!
>
> Anyway, I find pulp laden fruit very difficult to get decent SG readings,
> and despite reducing the sugar the second year it was still "hot". I
don't
> do many non grape wines so any suggestions to speed up the curve would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Tom
>

Hi Tom

As an alternative to the other suggestions here about what to do in
futu

About the only time solids have to be left in the primary is when
alcohol is needed to act as a solvent to extract certain desirable
components from the solids. (such as is the case with red grape wines).
Any time this is not the case, the juice is extracted _before_ ferment
begins and the ferment is conducted as a "juice only fermentation".
(such as is the case with white grape wines).

With Strawberries, I know of no such benefit, so, why not do these as
"juice only" in the future. There are any number of ways to extract the
juice prior assembling the must. Since the method of extraction can
have a substantial effect on the outcome, you will want to choose the
method according to your personal tastes.

And, doing it this way will eliminate the problem of adjusting pre-pitch
PA to get exactly the amount of alcohol you want in the finished wine.
HTH