Wine Making - Hydrometry - help needed etc

[emmaann17]

Hi all,
I am currently making plum wine but just want to check we are doing things rgiht with regards using the hydrometer ... just a few questions .......im new to this.
Once the plum juice is ready to add sugar, yeast etc when do I first use the hydrometer .. ? To check the current sugar level before i add the granulated etc?
We would like a medium sweet plum wine ... we are doing a gallon at a time using around about 4lb of plums. How much sugar do we add to get a percentage around 15% .
What SG should you start and finish on?
Really appricaite your help - thanks in advance.
: :thumb:

 

[Moley]

If you want a 15% wine you're looking for a gravity drop of around 110 points.

I would suggest you start it at around 1.105 then rack, add a campden tablet and stabilise with potassium sorbate when fermentation has almost finished at 0.995, then add around 4oz (110g) of sugar to bring it back to medium-sweet.

For a start gravity of 1.105 you need 45oz (1270g) of sugar in the gallon (4.5 litres)
You will get around 6oz (170g) out of your 4 lbs of plums, so you need to add 39oz (1100g).