simple winemaking

The yeast will ferment all the sugar that is there until it either runs out of sugar, or the alcohol levels kill off the yeast.
So for a sweet wine either have enough sugar that it will be left over after the yeast die, or kill the yeast yourself.
The first will give you a VERY STRONG (18% alcohol or so) wine that will be more like port or sherry.
Stopping the yeast yourself involves the addition of potasium sorbate and bisulfites. This kills the yeast, allowing you to sweeten to taste without it turning into alcohol. Wine making suppliers sell a product called "wine conditioner" or "wine stabilizer" that contains the sorbates and sulfites as well as sugar syrup. Its cheap and easy to use.

After saying all that, many fruit wines won't taste as dry as grape wines due to lower tannins and acids, especially if they are lower in alcohol (10% or so). So don't assume you will need to sweeten. Taste it first and see.

Give your wine plenty of time. Many wines that taste harsh and bitter at two months old, will be delicious and perfectly balanced at six months.

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The only thing is that these additives are what creates the wine headache. That makes many avoid wines altogether.

No additives =
Additives =

To stop an active fermentation you should first put your carboy in the fridge for a couple of days, and then add the sorbate and sulfite. They will prevent fermentation from starting back up, but can't stop a fermentation in full boil on their own.

You'll also need to be monitoring the specific gravity to make sure you stop the process before the wine ferments dry.

When it's stabilized, you can add sweetener of your choice to taste.

I also really like these two sites as well as http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/index.php.
Great people willing to share their knowledge.

Keller's site is where I got a recipe for pure juice watermelon wine (supposedly hard to get to turn out well) when I was faced with several end of season watermelons. I won't know for a long time if it was worth juicing those melons to get 3 gal of juice!

I also echo the advice to get a hydrometer. It's so much easier to know what's going on and make appropriate adjustments.

Thanks, everyone, I have learned a lot - especially about the additives. I never really knew what they were about.

I am so confident, I bought a 30 bottle wine rack at Goodwill yesterday ====

You'll hear how it turns out - good or bad.

I'm thinking it might be better if I still had access to good, fresh spring water - but bottled will have to do.

Thank you - and I hope others keep posting.

Trixie when you get the raisins pick up the white raisins the regular (or dark) will change the color of your wine.