A few amateur wine questions...

[Leviathan]

I'm still in my experimental brewing phase, only having brewed 3 batches of beer with my friend as well as a mead and blackberry wine.

My one gallon batch of blackberry wine, brewed about a month ago, took about 2 pounds of sugar for the recipe. Now i found this excessive, but understand it's required for the yeast to convert into alcohol. I'm very interested in sustainable brewing, I suppose you would call it, and it's difficult to derive sugar from my own back yard. Is there a fruit for wine making that doesn't require any sugar? Is this the reason why grape wine is so prominent? Thanks all

 

[Brewkowski]

Grapes do have a very high Brix content compared to most fruits, and they also make a great deal of juice, where as some fruits if you used just their juice you would need to press a boat load of fruit to get the same amount of juice. I think if you didn't add sugar, you'll just be looking at a lower alcohol level. If you don't want to use sugar, I would try using twice as much fruit, which will also give you a ver full flavored wine I am guessing. Here's a link for fruits and estimated Brix levels, my parents grow grapes and I know they look for mid 20's for a good start for their grape must.

http://www.honeycreek.us/brix.php