Thank you so much for playing, and I'm glad you're enjoying it!
So to answer your questions:
You can't make a high sugar into low alcohol, it makes it's equivalent and needs that many days to ferment.
You should have had, I want to say its 5 starting yeast in your starting tools alongside the bottles, if I forgot to add it, I am sorry! I'll check it when I can.
The drying rack isn't necessary, it's more of something to give the player a way to add more fun into gameplay. So you can toss in some fresh flowers, or you dry them first, and you could say it enhances the flavor. Player's choice as what they find fun!
For stars, you add them, then average that number. So like say you use two 3 star ingredients you would get 6, then average it to 3.
I hope those helped.