bitter wine help please

[jakesdad07]

I'm pretty new to home brewing, this was my second year making wine. Everything I have made has been from fresh fruit, and my problem is that everything seems to come out bitter and high in alcohol content. I don't have a hydrometer yet to test the content(plan on buying one soon), but what can I do to refine my process to cure these problems. I've got my recipes off the internet, and followed them to a t but they still come out like this. I have made blackberry the past two years and the 2011 batch came out very strong and very dry, so for my 2012 batch I used less sugar and it is much improved, but I still have the bitterness. I made strawberry, watermelon, and apple in 2012 and had the same issue with each. I work from fresh fruit pour boiling tap water over the fruit to kill the natural yeast, cool must to room temp then add yeast, sugar, and pectic enzyme. Are there any other additives I should use, are there flaws in my process? The wine is good but still needs more refining. Please help a beginner out. Thanks