Hi,
I am based in the South of the UK and myself and my wide are trying to
turn our grapes into wine - but it doesn't seem to be going as
expected!!

we have grown and picked our red wine grapes a week or so ago - I
can't remember what types the grapes were but they are red and they
are German (I think).

7 days ago we crushed the grapes and added yeast and a campden tablet.
We have stirred regularly (twice a day - except the first day because
we forgot...) and left the mix of pulped grapes and bits to do its
stuff.

Today we took the must from the fermentation barrel and filtered it
through muslin etc to get the solids out. We have put it into
demijohns and were trying to get a SG reading.

The "liquid" we have ended up with is a bit syrupy and the hydrometer
quite happily sank and would stay down if pushed, it would also stay
up if pulled. the best reading I got off it was 1025. Its not tar like
consistency but its a bit thicker than water...

I am a little worried that we have done something wrong... should the
liquid after filtering and squeezing the solids be more like a water
consistency? If it is syrupy can I dilute with water to thin it a
little?

We need to add all the bits to get fermentation going now but should
we be getting the consistency right first - or is what we have normal
- or should we filter the liquid again to thin it? I think its sugar
and yeast next when we seal the demijohns and put the fermentationb
traps on.

We have a book "first steps in wine making" by CCJ Berry but its not
much help - its hard to find what we should be doing and when we
should do it (its not structured very well IMHO!)



Help!!
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