Serious starting gravity problem 140!! Blackberry wine

Berry454 · Sep 11, 2023

Hi guys

Put on my first batch of blackberry wine today and it’s a 23 litre batch. Picked these blackberries myself from local spots.

My problem is that I just taken my starting gravity (about 4 hours after fermentation started) and it’s COMPLETELY off the charts for my hydrometer! It appears to be around 1.140!!

I just don’t get it recipe is as below.

5g bucket with a Biab grain bag inside.

5kg blackberries
5kg sugar (table sugar)
5 tsp pectolase
5 tsp citric acid

The blackberries can’t possibly contribute more than 250g of sugar! 4.9g of sugar per 100g on average!

How the heck can I possibly be on 1.140 SG?

And most importantly how can I fix this? I don’t want a 20% plus abv sweet wine.

MashBag · Sep 11, 2023

Hydrometers are a guide. There are better ways now. Brix and a refractometer is much better fit for wine.

That said. 5kg in 23l is up there.
Ripe blackberries will deliver a hit of sugar.

Is there a problem just diluting it a bit?
Tbh, 25l would make more sense for that recipe imo.

Tbh as I a typed this up, I think that reading is probably not too far off the mark.

Berry454 · Sep 11, 2023

MashBag said:
Hydrometers are a guide. There are better ways now. Brix and a refractometer is much better fit for wine.

That said. 5kg in 23l is up there.
Ripe blackberries will deliver a hit of sugar.

Is there a problem just diluting it a bit?
Tbh, 25l would make more sense for that recipe imo.

Tbh as I a typed this up, I think that reading is probably not too far off the mark.