You are making me thirsty! I am a huge fan of cider and perry (pear cider), especially when it’s tart, dry-ish and has a sparkling finish. Yummy yum yum! I applaud you for keeping this ancient and tasty art alive in your neck of the woods. You present an interesting scenario above. Since I don’t know your batch sizes (volume) I can’t help you calculate what 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of dry sugar (cane sugar? Malt sugar?) would do to your specific gravity, though an initial specific gravity of 1.034, being about 8.5 °Brix, certainly needs some sugar added to it. It’s possible you added too much, which would account for your stuck fermentation of about 6.5 °Brix or so (the 1.025 that you mention above). Once alcohol levels get above 14.5%, most yeasts start to struggle to complete a fermentation, which is why I try to never start my fermentations above 25.0 °Brix (1.106 specific gravity) if I can help it. Though the number varies from year to year and winery to winery, in my experience, alcohol conversion rates
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