Is filtering strawberry wine must necessary?

[Random Badger]

I'm probably going to make my second batch of strawberry wine soon. The most tedious part of the process the first time was filtering the must once I had squashed the strawberries to get the juice out. I did this in two stages, first a rough filter through a sieve to get rid of the solids and then a fine filter through muslin to get rid of all the little bits which took forever. So I'm wondering just how necessary the second fine filtering stage is? I gather it is supposed to help to achieve a clear wine, but won't leaving the wine to clear in a demijohn and adding finings once fermentation has completed achieve the same thing?

Has anyone made wine from strawberries (or similar fruit) without fine filtering and if so did it turn out ok please?

 

[Gwen]

I have just finished my primary fermentation on a strawberry wine. I was also wondering the same. I didn't squash my strawberries too much but was wondering if it would all drop to the bottom of the DJ and clear its self or if I should order some more pipe and dig the filter out.

Hope somebody can help you. Sorry I can't.

 

[Random Badger]

I have just finished my primary fermentation on a strawberry wine. I was also wondering the same. I didn't squash my strawberries too much but was wondering if it would all drop to the bottom of the DJ and clear its self or if I should order some more pipe and dig the filter out.

Hope somebody can help you. Sorry I can't.

Are you planning to pour it into the demijohn rather than syphoning? I would imagine sucking whole strawberries through a tube could be a challenge...

:-)

 

[Random Badger]

By the way, I froze, defrosted, squashed and filtered the strawberries to extract the juice before adding the yeast. I don't know if that is better or worse than fermenting the "whole" strawberries first before filtering when it's time to rack off to a demijohn.

 

[Gwen]

Are you planning to pour it into the demijohn rather than syphoning? I would imagine sucking whole strawberries through a tube could be a challenge...

:-)

Mine were fresh strawberries, just stirred each day. I syphoned into a new DJ a few days ago. Some of the strawberries were still sort of floating so wasn't to bad for syphoning.

Thing is I syphoned into a brown DJ so cant see how it looking now

 

[johncrobinson]

They should settle at the bottom of the fermenter.
As a general rule leaving the fruit pulp in during fermentation improves wines,Both in terms of colour and flavour.
Especially a fruit like Strawberry which hasn't got much much of either to start with.

 

[Random Badger]

They should settle at the bottom of the fermenter.
As a general rule leaving the fruit pulp in during fermentation improves wines,Both in terms of colour and flavour.
Especially a fruit like Strawberry which hasn't got much much of either to start with.

So would I be ok mashing up the strawberries, adding the yeast, leave for a week, rough filter through a sieve then syphon into a demijohn? (I'm assuming some sort of filtering is necessary to avoid leaving a lot of juice behind in the pulp) Then rack off into a second demijohn after 10 days to finish fermenting.

 

[johncrobinson]

That would be one way of doing it,(Its called pulp fermentation.)
If you are using a LOT of fruit that might be the way to go.

Normally the yeast and pulp settle to quite a firm deposit at the end of fermentation and the clear wine can be easily siphoned off.
In my experience there are sometimes one or two bits of fruit left floating but these are easily avoided.

 

[Random Badger]

That would be one way of doing it,(Its called pulp fermentation.)
If you are using a LOT of fruit that might be the way to go.

Normally the yeast and pulp settle to quite a firm deposit at the end of fermentation and the clear wine can be easily siphoned off.
In my experience there are sometimes one or two bits of fruit left floating but these are easily avoided.

Interesting - so literally no filtering stage at all. Sounds promising!