Blackberry Wine - what am I doing wrong?

[KGinOregon]

I made my first batch of blackberry wine very simply -dump in 15 lbs of berries, water and sugar and yeast. Wait 5 days and move it to a 3 gal carboy. Rack it a couple more times over 5 mo. and bottle it. Tastes pretty good, but I have no idea how much alcohol there is or even if its really done fermenting. Its a little sweet, very soft and mellow and one small glass makes me a little tipsy. I like it a lot.

This time I'm trying to be scientific (maybe a mistake). I added 16 lbs of berries, about 7 lbs of sugar, about 3 gal of water, acid blend, etc. It comes out about 1.16 on my hydrometer (not 1.08). My house is at 65 degrees F. I think this says I added way too much sugar, but that's the recipe. I added campden and tomorrow I'll add yeast.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[bobsbeer]

It comes out about 1.16 on my hydrometer (not 1.08)

Do you mean 1.160? That is a very high reading and would be off the scale on my hydrometer. (1.150) If it is such a high reading normal yeast would struggle to ferment with such a high sugar content. I would check that reading as I suspect it is wrong. I would have expected an sg of around 1.016 with your ingredients, which if it ferments out should be around 15-16% ABV.

 

[oldbloke]

Including the sugar from the fruit I reckon you have a little under 8lb, which isn't far off for 3 gallons
It suggests a hydrometer reading of 1.116 rather than 1.160, and that's a mistake in looking at the scale that could be easy to make
It's heading for over 15%ABV, but not by much, and if you stop it before all the sugar's gone, and lose some alcohol concetration by topping up after when racking, it ought to come out about right.

 

[KGinOregon]

Phhheeew.

I took the reading again and got similar results, using a wine thief. I then took a cup from the top of the bucket and poured it into the wine thief. Way different reading. Got a big spoon and mixed it up thoroughly and it now reads 1.080. I'd used boiled sugar water and thought I'd mixed it before reading, but I guess not.

Sorry for the panic over something so easy.

Thanks for your help, I'm back on track.

 

[rosie]

The temperature of the mix in the Fermenting vessel is important when measuring the Specific Gravity it should be read at approximately 20 degrees Centigrade for an accurate Starting specific gravity measurement- at least this is my understanding. :)

 

[KGinOregon]

My house is at 65 F or 18.3 C so it should be pretty close. That's good to keep in mind though. It'll probably be a lot warmer when the wine is done fermenting.