Advice for Making Peach Wine?

[Lyle]

I add pectic enzyme to all my fruit wines for better extraction of flavor and color. It has sometimes really helped clear the wine later. I think straining with a bag after primary fermentation and then letting it settle should work; worked for me. Pressing may just make more fine particles and cloud it up more. The brown coloration is probably oxidation as others have thought. Some KMS (metabisulfite) should slow down the oxidation, but of course add after fermentation is done. I remove browning with an egg white based powder (ovo white) something like that. I've made peach a couple of times. Suggest very ripe peaches or the flavor is weak.

 

[Scooter68]

The apple wine was from our own apples. They looked horrible, every one had to be cut by hand to remove the spots, bug and worm holes. Used an Omega Juicer and the juice was fantastic - like a runny applesauce. Made some hard cider, drank some as fresh juice and made 1 gallon of wine. This year no apples so we have to hope for a good harvest next year.

Yes your wine is clearing quickly - looking better already.

 

[porkchopmessiah]

Hey all, I just filtered mine into gallons from the 5 gallon carboy, wound up with about 4 1/2 gallon, I know I was light on fruit, I followed the ec Kraus recipe...aside from that are you guys back sweetening of just rolling as is...I pulled a cup out and was dry, but after about 1 tsp sugar the peach flavor was def more noticeable

 

[Scooter68]

Most fruit wines, including Peach, are going to be better with little back-sweetening. I sweeten to taste then measure the resulting SG.
Almost every batch, every fruit wine ends up at about 1.005. The only exception to that has been my Tart Cherry, it ended up at about 1.012 and still only has a slight sweetness to it. (That's a TART Cherry wine for ya)
Anyway I would definitely recommend a little back-sweetening. If you like dryer wines, then just go until you taste the flavor improve.

Always work from the taste
Never work from the SG numbers I just use those SG numbers so I have something to put on my labels and for my bookkeeping.

 

[Bleedaggie]

I just started a batch of peach. 25lb of peaches, 3 gallons of water, 6 cups of sugar. 16oz of lemon juice.

My recipe says “check SG before adding yeast. It will seem high because of the peach pulp” which makes sense. But what SG should I aim for before pitching my yeast? I’ve got plenty of space in my primary to add sugar or water but don’t know what my target SG should be.

 

[Scooter68]

The reason for "High SG Readings" is because in an all fruit - no water batch, well mashed peaches take a couple of days before you can even get a reading. The Hydrometer will literally stop pretty much at what ever reading you push it into. (Like putting a hydrometer into a container of pudding.) With 3 gallons of water and 25 lbs of peaches you have what sort of volume now? It's possible you may very well get an accurate reading as long as you have mashed/crushed/pressed the peaches enough. When you put that hydrometer into take your measurement if it doesn't bounce back up or sticks/stops going and doesn't 'bounce' - then you need to wait another day or two before trying to get a good reading. BUT it would still be wise to wait a day or two to allow the peaches to break down a bit.

ALSO VERY VERY important - hit it very heavy with pectic enzyme NOW! Don't wait on that and go heavy!

As to the SG reading - that depend on the ending ABV you want. I would go for something between 1.080 and 1.090. Any higher and you will have too 'hot' a wine to enjoy the peach flavor. (Those starting points would give you an ABV of 11.81% to 13.13 - IF you don't dilute the batch along the way.)

Also you can expect around 1/4 to maybe even 1/3 volume loss due to the lees. (That's during the first 3 rackings.) so if you start with 6 gallons of must, you will probably end up with less than 5 gallons before you are ready to age the wine.
So allow for that when you figure out what carboys you are going to use to age the wine.

 

[Bleedaggie]

I hit it with twice the pectic it called for and it still has tons of pulp. The fermentation is just about done. Too late to add more pectic? Can you over pectic it?

Also, I’d like to experiment with a couple of flavors off the base peach (vanilla and blackberry). I should have around 4 gallons after I rack it a couple of times. It’s at 6 now. Thinking I’ll keep two 1G carboys of the straight peach for now in case I go too heavy on the other flavors or don’t like them. 1G of the others. Should I wait for those until after I’ve racked it a few times and it’s relatively clear?

 

[pillswoj]

the enzyme does not do anything for the pulp, it is more so that the wine will clear after you rack it off the pulp. My 6 gallon batch of peach (50 lbs of peaches) I lost over a gallon to pulp after pressing.

I would wait until the wine is clear before splitting the batch.

 

[Bleedaggie]

Racked this to 5 one gallon secondaries yesterday. I expected to get some of the lees but the wine pump grabbed a bunch in this gallon especially. How quickly would you worry about getting it reracked? Urgent, or let them all settle for a bit where I’m more likely to be able to condense 5 into 4?

 

[porkchopmessiah]

I ran into the same issue....ive been told it takes almost a year to settle out, im gonna rack manually 2 times over the next 6 months before I try the filter again. that said, with the middle filter pad I got about 3/4 gallon the was as clear a a chardonnay before the filter clogged

 

[Scooter68]

Four Batches of Peach wine - The First with just 4.5lbs for a gallon. The rest 6.5-7 lbs/gallon
Except for the first batch all have taken up to a year to clear. last two batches still not clear 14 months in. Patience it tough sometimes. Oh and I do use bentonite and heavy on the pectic Enzyme too.

It IS worth the wait.

 

[pillswoj]

I hit my peach with the kieselsol / chitosan combination (used a double dose of enzyme during fermentation), wine has fully cleared as of today about 8 weeks since I pitched the yeast.

 

[Scooter68]

Great- much better results than my last peach batches. One started in July 2017 and one in August 2017 still cloudy.

 

[mainshipfred]

I've only made it one time. Used bentonite and peptic enzyme but the thing that cleared it pretty quickly was sparkloid