Red Grape wine - first time brewing

[Dbm24]

Hi. I am new to the forum and new to brewing.

I started wine making 5 weeks ago, I used black grapes 3 kg, I added 2 liters of water and 1.5 kg of sugar, also 3 mg of wine yeast.

the primary fermentation started the third day when I put it in a high temperature room. around 30C, I added the yeast, I used 1 crushed Campden tablet, 24 hours before adding the yeast. after 7 days of fermentation the smell was strong, and the taste of alcohol is really strong. I did rack and added another half Campden tablet, I removed some of the grapes must and I started the second fermentation. after 2 weeks I checked with hydrometer and honestly, I didn't know how to use it. until now my hydrometer is stuck on 20 and I donno if I can bottle or not.

 

[fluketamer]

i suppose you mean 3 gm of yeast.

i am not sure what 20 means. it sounds like you are using refractometer not hydrometer . the problem with refractometer is once there is alcohol in the wine your reading is not as accurate. there are conversions and tables that you can use to get the adjusted gravity. one way to be pretty sure is to let it ferment for another 2 weeks and then degas and bottle. most likely you will have hit FG by then. i have found that after bottling you can check if fermentation is done by cracking one of the bottles. no hiss means fermentation most likely done and you are fine. always let your wines clear before bottling. i like bentonite. never bottle cloudy wine.
let us know how this comes out i always assumed you need wine grapes to make decent wine.


and welcome to hbt

 

[Dbm24]

i suppose you mean 3 gm of yeast.

i am not sure what 20 means. it sounds like you are using refractometer not hydrometer . the problem with refractometer is once there is alcohol in the wine your reading is not as accurate. there are conversions and tables that you can use to get the adjusted gravity. one way to be pretty sure is to let it ferment for another 2 weeks and then degas and bottle. most likely you will have hit FG by then. i have found that after bottling you can check if fermentation is done by cracking one of the bottles. no hiss means fermentation most likely done and you are fine. always let your wines clear before bottling. i like bentonite. never bottle cloudy wine.
let us know how this comes out i always assumed you need wine grapes to make decent wine.


and welcome to hbt

Thank you for the reply. actually, I am using a hydrometer not a refractometer. in the beginning I bought a hydrometer without Brix, then I bought a new one with Brix, the new one showed me the wine is sweet, and the old one is stuck on number 20. I will share some photos tonight hopefully it can help to understand. appreciate your help.

 

[madscientist451]

Wine requires a little more patience than brewing beer. Bottling should be done when the wine is ready, you may need to make some adjustments if the taste isn’t right. For your next batch you may want to try adding frozen grape juice concentrate instead of table sugar. Sugar provides a very strong alcohol taste that some people don’t mind, but I don’t like at all. Making adjustments can be somewhat complicated and when I started wine making, I made all kinds of mistakes with additives. These days I only use quality wine grapes or juice and don’t adjust anything except by blending different varieties.