Zucchini wine

Taking the recent good advice of Darlene V and Jack Keller as guidance, I started a two gallon batch of zucchini (courgette) wine this week. I used 16 lbs of fruit, some of them almost marrows, but not mature enough to warrant taking out the pips. In the hope of gaining extra body, I buttisted extraction by peeling and dicing the fruit, then putting them in the freezer for 48hrs.

On removal from the freezer, I sprinkled about 1lb. of sugar over the frozen pulp, again to buttist extraction. I had tested a small amount beforehand and I found that sugar has the same draining effect as salt does when applied to zucchini or cucumber pieces for pickling purposes. When the pulp had returned to room temperature, I added two campden tablets and two teaspoonfuls of pectolase and left it for 24 hrs.

By then the mash resembled a rather thick soup. I added the rind and juice of three lemons, five simmered bananas, a can of white grape concentrate, yeast nutrient, tannin, citric acid and bentonite. The SG at that stage measured 1030, so I calculated that 3.5 lbs of sugar would be required to take it to 1090-1100 and thus finish at 11-12% alcohol.

When measuring the SG in the hydrometer jar, I was concerned at the claggy texture of the must juice, so I strained it through a fine-ish tea strainer. However, the liquid was still quite dense and I am wondering if that would have affected the hydrometer reading. I have added 1 kg. of white sugar so far and a general purpose yeast. The volume of the mash came to over 2 gallons without the addition of any water, and I am buttuming that further sugar will be added. The mash is already rising fast in the primary fermentation vessel.

Do I just let it ferment to dry, or should I add more sugar at some stage to finish with a medium dry wine? -- Alan Gould. North Lincolnshire, UK.