Hi, there I'm new to wine making. I recently made my first b...

Hi, there
I'm new to wine making. I recently made my first batch of wine. I boiled some strawberries, apples, lemon juice and peach juice and added 3 cups of powdered sugar to the mix. Here is my problem. Believing that yeast is yeast i used Fliechmans bread yeast instead of proper wine yeast. (Like I said I'm new). After about 5 days of fermenting fermentation has basically stopped and I'm left with a wine that is kind of sour and has very little alcohol in it. Is it a lost cause? Also what is the easiest wine to make for beginers? Not a kit though I want to make from scratch.

Thanks,

Most fruit wines are about the same as far as the fact they are not that hard. Blackberry is pretty easy to crush. Peach is not to bad but you have to remove all the pits, which aint to bad if your peaches are ripe enough. Check the iternet you will find a million recipes. I might be wrong but from reading your post I dont think you have much equipment. If you just want to scrounge things up to get buy for awhile at least buy a hydrometer. They only cost about $6.00.
http://www.rebelbrewer.com http://winemaking.jackkeller.net http://www.eckraus.com

Few sites to get you started

Thanks for the great links. I have a hydrometer but I didn't know how to use it until yesterday and by then it was too late. lol. My father used to make wine so he pretty much gave me everything i need except knowledge. I just don't want to ruin big batches of wine u know. Do u think my wine could turn out in the end? It's cloudy right now but it is still young and has to be filtered and racked or whatever. I put it in an airlock earlier today. Should i have done that? I'll keep posting my results if you're interested.

Boiling it you probably set the pectin pretty good which will make it pretty cloudy, it may not clear up. Just because you dont see big bubbles dosn't mean its done. When hydrometer quits dropping in value and will read less than 1.000 its done. Just use this one to learn patience with and start another. Read Jack Kellers web site thoroughly and get started. Try plain juice to start just mix it up and add campden tabs wait 24 hr then add yeast. Remember take your time, after you are out of primary you are in no hurry give it 3 months. Put up somewhere in dark cool place to forget about and try to remember once a month to make sure your airlock is not dry. While your waiting brew some beer it will help give you something to do while your waiting.

Started brewing some beer. I got a "big easy" brewing kit. It's basically a 2 litre plastic bottle full of wort. It comes with an airlock cap and a yeast tablet. It's pretty cool. I'm going to get some juice and start my next batch of wine. I've got some wine yeast now so....

Thats barley going to wet your tounge. Do you have a place nearby to buy malt?

Ya there is a place in my town but i want to make wine mostly. I started a new batch today. I got some grape apple juice. I took a reading with my hydrometer and it read 6% potential alcohol or about 50 SP.GR or 12 balling scale I added sugar and brought it up to 9% PA OR 80 SP.GR 19 Balling scale. Can u tell me what this means? I know that the % scale measures potential alcohol level but does this mean that I can only achieve 9% alcohol in this wine? The juice smells really sweet and is almost thick. Should i add water? OH and it's a 2 liter jug of juice.

You should try to get your potential alcohol up to the 12% area. This helps to preserve the wine in the aging process. 9% seems kind of low to me, and yes 9% would be the maximum % you could achieve. Unless you fortified or added more sugars it would probably come out lower than 9 due to top ups.

it depends on your yeast. i like to use a yeast the will dependably produce at least 15% alcohol. then i shoot for 1.095 on the hydrometer.

if u go dry with this # u will get 13.85% alcohol.

anything less than 1.100 will keep away a sluggish fermention.

gl my friend

cheers

Thanks,
I'm using Lalvin ec-1118 champagne yeast. Should I add more sugar? I didn't add any acid to the mix either should I? I have lemon juice for acid.

Apple needs about 1/2 tsp per gallon of acid. And yes you need more sugar make the specific gravity equal 1.095 on your hyrdrometer.

OK thanks bob. You the man! I will add more sugar aver the next couple of days i guess. I know that 1 cup brought it up by 2.5% so...

You need to do it where you can keep track of it. You said you had an sg of 1.070 (9% PA). Let it ferment down to 1.040 then add enough sugar to bring it back to 1.070. This will give you a resultant of 14%. See how that goes for you.

OK I will do that. hopefully this stuff will turn out better than my first batch.lol I'm sure it will with a little help from my friends...