Ah, this is where I got it... I did it right. I just didn't turn off the burner.

"Since I started out with frozen berries I put 1 gallon of water in a large pan and brought it to a boil. Shut off the burner and added the first 12 pounds of frozen berries. Once the berries were thawed I ran them through the blender and poured the blended fruit through a Home Depot large paint strainer bag. Tie off the top of the bag.These large bags are cheap. I then boiled another gallon of water and used the same process. There was so much fruit that I had to use 2 of those strainer bags. After tying off the second bag I add the remainder of the water and remainder of ingredients. I wanted a full bodied wine so I used a lot of berries. Some of the problems is measuring SG with a hydrometer in such a thick solution. The sugar quickly breaks down the berries. When I am making a heavy bodied wine I use an ATC refractor and measure Brix. I set the brix at 22.5 which is approx. 1.092 SG. My primary fermenter is an 8 gallon food grade trash can and I use a muslin towell over the top fastened in place with a shock cord. I leave my stirring spoon and hydrometer in the must. My hydrometer is inside of the Farmtek wine thief."

When boiling for a period of time you remove oxygen from the juice plus then adding metabisulphite kind of compounded the problem. Plus you had the container basically sealed off so it couldn't outgas.

When boiling beer they don't use metabisulphite plus they stir vigorously prior to adding the yeast to insure the beer is properly oxygenated.

These things happen. I wouldn't give up on the must just yet. think you can still get it going.

Just got up and checked it. There is about a half inch of foam sitting on the top of the must. It's trying to go. I will stir it in the morning after its had a good start. Should be good to go after that.

Thanks again Sir.

That is great. Depending on temp it will take 2 or 3 days to ferment mostly out. When the specific gravity get down below 1.020 or so and looks like the foam is pretty much gone rack to the secondary. Take out the bag of pulp if you did it that way, otherwise just rack over to the secondary. If you take some gross lees with you don't worry too much. If you rack much above 1.020 or sometimes right at 1.020 you will get some overflowing of the airlock when you go to the secondary. Depends a lot on the type of yeast. Won't hurt any if you even wait down to 1.010 SG when you rack. Although the experts tell you to keep minimal head space in the carboy, I like to have a little more when I go to the secondary so it won't overflow the airlock. You may have to go to a 5 and 1 gallon or even a 6 and 1 gallon depending how much must you had. Once total fermentation is finished in the secondary we rack again (less than 3 weeks)

When you rack to the secondary in a couple of days DO NOT add campden yet. We want it to ferment out first.

Update: Before fermentation started we were at 15 percent potential alcahol; now were at 5 percent. Fermentation is really truckin' along. However, it's got a slight paint thinner smell now. It's got me a little worried. Is this something that will work itself out? I have been stirring it twice a day.

If you haven't added any yeast nutrient, add some now. Otherwise I wouldn't worry right now. Since you were having trouble getting yeast started I doubt there is any wild yeat that started at this point.
Stir couple of times a day.