first try!

[chaka99]

hi iv knocked up a brew on Saturday I say knocked up because I just threw a load of stuff together, blackberry, about t2Kg, sugar maybe 1.1/2KG honey 700g ish, and of course the precious yeast. It seemed to be doing very well, until this morning, yesterday I removed the scum of the top, and when I looked this morning there was nothing on the top of the brew. my question is, has it finished fermenting? or did my hand fisted approach stand little chance of successes from the start? should I just start again I picked a load more blackberry's and got some pectolase. im using a 5 gallon fermentation bucket with a fish tank heater set to 74. everything was sterilized before use. thank you!

 

[jhoson]

Wine ferment very fast!

Best way to know if fermentation was really finished is using a hydrometer.

 

[chaka99]

thank you dude iv purchased one and had a reading of 1.015,but I have nothing to compere it to.

 

[jhoson]

What type of yeast was used?

Aiming for a dry, medium or sweet wine?

 

[chaka99]

I used young's dried active yeast. hmm not thought about it, as long as it turns out ok ill be happy. my next one I will pick a recipe to follow, got plenty of berries around me.

 

[jhoson]

Normally a wine ferments in 3 to 5 days.

Since you have a Hydrometer, take some readings. If it keeps the same reading for 3 days straight it should have finished fermenting, now transfer off the lees to another carboy.

I'm no expert on wine, to be honest I just started on it about 2 months ago. But if I recall right:

0.990 to 0.999 is a Dry wine
1.0 to 1.009 Medium
1.010 to 1.020 Sweet
Over this is freaking sweet.

 

[chaka99]

it had an SG of 1.000 so I put it in the corboy and it's bubbling away nicely. I made a new batch this afternoon 18lbs of blackberry's 6lbs of plums 10lbs of sugar. SG is 1.075. happy thanks for you input.