2 batches and 2 different problems

[cheri1981]

Blackberry

Bought a book and followed a recipe for blackberry wine in it. I put 4 pound of frozen blackberries in the nylon bag add 1 gallon of water and all the other ingrediants, except yeast. The recipe called for 1/2 pound sugar and keep adding until you reach 1.090-1.095. At 4 cups of sugar I quit adding. It seemed like way to much. I have taken several reading over 3 hours (I thought mixture might have been to cold) and it is still only at 1.070. It did keep going up as I added sugar, but it just seems like to much sugar.


Elderberry/blueberry

I did a dumb thing here and was not paying attention. Wine had reached 1.040 so I was going to rack to secondary. (this was a 2nd run on the berries) I racked to the secondary and added a camp tablet. right after I added it, I knew I had made a mistake and may have killed off the yeast and it will stop fermenting. I cleaned the primary and returned it to that. The questions is what can be done now. Or is the batched ruined.

 

[Luc]

Let me reply first on the Blackberry:

1 gallon is about 3,7 liter
1 cup is about 226 gram (using fermcalc http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/fermcalc_applet.html)

so 4 cups = 904 gram
assuming 18 gram sugar needed for 1% alcohol per liter
904 / 18 / 3,7 = 13% alcohol
That should be about right as blackberries are very flavorfull.

Next the elderberry / blueberry problem.

The campden contains sulphite.
A normal dose would be 1 tables for a gallon.
I do not know if you already added some campden if you did you have now twice the dose needed.

The yeast may survive this and it is possible that they are just stunned. So wait a few days to see if they will revive.

If they do not revive in a few days I would transfer the must
from one container to another several times by splashing it from some height.
You will thus bring oxygen in the wine which will bind to the sulphite and therefore give the yeast another chance.

Luc