peach wine questions

[gird123]

I have been given some small peaches. They taste good. Should i remove the skin and the pit before making wine?

 

[seth8530]

Their are multiple post on peach wine on this board if you search for them. However, if it was me I would not take the skins of but I would remove the pits as I believe they can cause bitterness.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

Depending on how many pounds of peaches you have. Peach seems to need a little more pounds per gallon than other fruits. If you have enough, quarter them, de-stone, then freeze. Thaw and add some pectic enzyme to help break them down.

 

[Turock]

All good suggestions. And bentonite the primary so that the wine will clear better and you won't have the pectin haze that plagues peach wine.

 

[olusteebus]

Not to hijack this thread but when do you bentonite the primary. Do you wait until hte fermentation has stopped?

 

[bob1]

Try to even get extra hulls to add to it. Will give you a better peach flavor. Add betonite to the must in the very beginning when you add SO2.

 

[SBWs]

The way I add Bentonite to the primary is to add about a inch of hot tap water to the bottom and then sprinkle in bentonite while swirling the water around. Keep swirling until all the bentonite is dissolved. I've found this way keeps it from clumping.

 

[gird123]

Try to even get extra hulls to add to it. Will give you a better peach flavor.

Extra Hulls? is that seeds?

 

[gird123]

3 Gallon Recipe
28 lbs of very ripe peaches (destoned and quartered)
4 ounce liquid concentrate bottle (all of it) Pectic Enzyme
1/4 tsp k-meta
1/4 tsp of sorbate
1 sachet of Red Star Champagne yeast
Adjust SG with sugar and small amount of boiling water to 1.085

This is Wade's. I think I will try to get 50lbs of peaches.

 

[gird123]

60 lbs of peaches!

 

[olusteebus]

no, they mean skins

 

[bob1]

yep get plenty extra peaches make some jelly and lots of cobbler put all the skins you can in that wine.

 

[Duster]

maybe I'm the weird one of the bunch but I have made peach wine both with and without the skins (hulls) personally, I like it better without.
also I prefer Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast over Red Star Champagne for my peaches

 

[gird123]

So I stirred my peach every day and it still had a egg smell when i racked it? Should i rack it again?

We have some more free peaches available. What do you think about steam juicing for peaches or grapes?

 

[Turock]

We prefer to freeze the fruit. I think you lose something on grapes without the skins.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

I've just recently started juicing a couple of different fruits. Juicing certainly free's up space in the freezer, plus using juice, you don't have to deal with two primaries when using large amounts of fruit. You could always juice the grapes and save some skins in the freezer.

 

[SBWs]

I've steam juiced concord grapes and elderberries and made some real good concord/elderberry wine. I also have used steamed concord grape juice to make concord wine and then blended 50/50 with Vintner's Harvest fruit base cranberry wine. That's one I can't make enough of.

I've never steam juiced peaches so I don't have a answer on those.

 

[andy123]

All good suggestions. And bentonite the primary so that the wine will clear better and you won't have the pectin haze that plagues peach wine.

I split a batch of peach wine used bentonite in 1 carboy and sparkaloid in the other and the bentonite worked much much better.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

Thats good to know. Thanks.

 

[Poormanfarm]

I've steam juiced concord grapes and elderberries and made some real good concord/elderberry wine. I also have used steamed concord grape juice to make concord wine and then blended 50/50 with Vintner's Harvest fruit base cranberry wine. That's one I can't make enough of.

I've never steam juiced peaches so I don't have a answer on those.

I steamed juiced two bushels of peaches about 6 weeks ago. I washed the peaches and quartered them taking out the pit and leaving the skins on them. The steamer juicer did a great job of juicing the peaches. I have 5 gallon in a carboy now and it is totally clear. no need for a clearing agent. I made the wine out of pure peach juice (no water). I will backsweeten to taste later on with some of my extra juice that is now in the freezer. I got almost 10 gallon of pure juice out of 2 bushel.