Other Vinter's Harvest Blackberry starting SG

[brudavis]

I just started my first wine Vinter's Harvest Blackberry. I followed the directions on the can for 3 gallons and my starting SG is 1.090 if I am reading it correctly. Is this ok as the directions do not give me a starting SG?

Thanks for any and all help
Bruce

 

[djl7780]

I am still a newb myself, but I just racked a VH blackberry to secondary and my starting SG was around 1.095
I would say you are fine, but maybe some of the more knowledgeable folks could chime in!

 

[Midwest Vintner]

1.090 will be something like 12.3 alc/vol.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp

^Keller has good info, but beware, many recipes use less lbs/gal for their fruits. Meaning, they'll be weaker than you might like. I like mine pretty bold and flavorful. It all depends on how you like it and what's your end goal for the wine.

I shoot for 1.085-1.095 depending on what wine it is and how long I want to age it. Higher alcohol can be somewhat offset by aging. Similar to having a 50 year old scotch. It should smooth out. Having a young wine and higher alcohol isn't easy to make smooth. It also depends on the yeast. You can go to 1.1, but a 12% alc/vol yeast won't dry the wine out completely before it dies. This would leave you what they call "residual sugar." Some like it that way, so they don't need to re-sweeten a wine later. I prefer to let it go dry by only giving the amount of sugar to make my target alc/vol and then back sweeten. The beauty of wine making is that there aren't really many set ways to do it.