Raspberry Wine troubles

[lukasbickel]

I recently attempted to make raspberry wine for the first time and beforehand I looked at plenty of videos of how to make it and I feel like each video was different, especially on the amount of time to ferment it. Needless to say, I mashed up my raspberries (5.25 lbs), added some boiling sugar (4 cups) water, a Campden tablet, 2 tsp of pectic cenzyme, and let it cool down for 24 hours, and then pitched my yeast with yeast nutrients (1 tsp), and then let it sit in my primary fermentor for a week. I reracked in into a demijohn and it's currently still "fermenting" (not sure if its actually fermenting). I almost feel like it is completely down because there is no gas being released at the moment. Is it possible, it's already down fermenting? I added 4 cups of sugar too for one gallon. Is there a gold standard for raspberry wine fermenting time in a primary and then a secondary fermentor?

Hope this made sense haha and thanks for any feedback! I want to try this raspberry wine again without any issues.

 

[lukasbickel]

*boiling sugar water solution was 3/4 of a gallon (the sugar itself I used 4 cups)

 

[lumpher]

When I make wine with fruit (instead of getting lazy and using juice, which I use most of the time), I let it ferment 10 days, secondary for 10 days, then rack it again and bulk age it for a few months. With all that sugar and several pounds of raspberries, I'd consider extending each step a week. I'd use 3-4 lbs of raspberries and 3 cups of sugar, but I prefer dry wine to sweet.

 

[lukebuz]

Your name is shockingly close to mine. ha!

Anyways, get a hydrometer and baster. $15 will answer your questions. If it's below 1.000 it's nearly done fermenting. If it's 0.995 or so, it's done. Anything higher, it's probably still active!

 

[Coydee]

Is it clear or still a bit cloudy?
If you don't have hydrometer have you tried a taste test to see if it's overly sweet or has a low alcohol content.
My guess is that it's either "stuck" or slowed down.