Hello, I'm new to this group and to winemaking so I'm full of questions. We started making wine this spring and just like we do everything we jumped in head first. Now I have 3 batches of wine about 6 gallons each that are not turning out very well at this point. We have a Strawberry, Sweet Cherrie, and a Black Raspberry wine. They are all at different stages in the process but have similar characteristics. They all seem to have a strong alcohol oder and taste to them. We went by the recipe that came with our kit and all of them tested around 1.09 Brix or
12% potential alcohol after mixing them and before fermentation. Now, Several months later and dry when I test them using a Vinometer I get very high results. The Strawberry appears to drop off about 25% but I think that is somehow inaccurate. The Cherrie is running around 20 - 22%! and the Raspberry is around 18%. I'm not sure of my accuracy since I am new to all of this. We tried playing with some samples and cutting it with water. Unfortunaly that also cuts the taste just as much and we end up with better alcohol content but a flavored water taste. Is there any way that I can cut back the alcohol taste and or content and save the flavor? If not is there a way I can keep this from happening with the next batch we try? The next batch we intend to try is going to be Watermelon. Since this will probably have a week flavor to begin with we are going to cut the sugar way back to start with. Any recommendations for yeast? Any ideas?Thanks it advance, Tom