Foam caps

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Scooter68

Fruit "Wine" Maker
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For new wine makers it's sometimes hard to be sure when fermentation has really begun. And sometimes thertoe is no doubt. I'm posting a few pics of a new batch of peach wine. The yeast was pitched 21 hours ago. Temps in the room are at about 77. Peach wine from fresh peaches tends to be very thick - so thick that to get an accurate SG read I have to put the hydrometer in the testing tube and agitate it for at least a minute or more until the hydrometer settles. Normally I do this several times over the course 24-36 hours before pitching the yeast. Straining is not practical when you have used 28 lbs of peaches in a total volume of just under 4 gallons.
So the pictures show that after 21 hrs with yeast EC-1118 I have a cap of about 1 1/2" . For background my yeast starter is always the same. 2 oz water, 1 oz must, 1/16 tsp yeast nutrient and a dash of fetmaid-k (I know not the proper fermaid variety but it works.) The water alone is heated for 20 sec in a microwave then I add the other items stir and cover. Normally the yeast rehydrates in less than 30 minutes with a thick foam layer. That mix is then pitched. Not claiming any magic here. This is what has been working for me now for the last 2 1/2 years as my "standard" starter mix. The only problems have been with my black currant from juice batches. They do start but tend to stall out before reaching 1.000 or lower KIMG1467~2.JPG KIMG1465.JPG
 
Yep, peach can get messy. I've only done it a few times, but I've used paint strainer bags and still have a lot of 'stuff' floating and foaming about.
 
@Scooter68 you seem to be one of the goto's for country wines. I'm making my second peach, the first was a concentrate and about 10 lbs of peaches, turned out OK but I wanted better so this time I used 100+ lbs of peaches in 2 fermentors and only added 1/2 gallon of water to each. The brix was 11.5 and I'm going to bring it up to 23 with Chardonnay concentrate. Calcs show it takes 1.5 gallons each at 68 brix. This was recommended by a commercial winemaker instead of using sugar. There is a total of 12 gallons in each fermentor and when I add the Chardonnay will be up to 7.5 gallons each.

So my question is do you add citric acid or acid blend, tannins and have you ever used cinnamon?
 
I'm not Scooter, but I used acid blend and some generic 'tannin'. Never used cinnamon. I used Welch's White Grape-Peach frozen concentrate to bring up the volume/brix. 4 cans to a gallon of water, IIRC. Where'd you get the chardonnay concentrate?
 
use of a refractometer to measure sg would have much easier. continued monitor of fermentation using correction tables would also be easy just use one drop of liquid.
 
Yes to Acid Blend. This particular batch required a substantial amount.

No to tannin but checking my other peach recipes I've gone with before so perhaps I'll add some today.

No to cinnamon (Just haven't tried it) BUT I have added a piece of Vanilla bean. That idea came to me with my first batch. Being still a newbie I tasted some of the large quantity of peach pulp and skins left over. Then tried it on Vanilla Ice Cream and loved it. Hence the idea of combining Peach and Vanilla in a wine. If you have some usable pulp remains at the end of fermentation you might try that test - putting that on ice cream. Yeast smell and taste is something I like anyway (back from the days of mom's home-made bread)

Anyway - If you like that idea you might try a couple of gallons by simply adding about 1/8 of a vanilla bean. Even after fermentation is done. Just don't over do it with that OR the cinnamon stick. They both can be overpowering.

I'll post my log entries after I get back from the other house (winery) need to go check on the progress of my two ferments ongoing - Blueberry and Peach.

Hmmm still have one more carboy available to use. Perhaps another batch of Cherry? The question is how tart to make this batch. I have four bottles of Tart Cherry Concentrate and two bottles of Black Cherry Concentrate. (I use 4 bottles for a 3 gallon batch to make sure the flavor is solid) Previously I've done 3 tart to 1 Black Cherry - Perhaps it's time to even that up to 2 & 2? Well I have another few days before either of these two finish and free up a bucket.
 
Last edited:
Log / Recipe -
28 lbs fresh peaches, de-stoned then frozen for about 4 weeks. Then run through an Omega juicer (slow juicer). That gave a volume just over 3 gallons. (Kept all skins pulp not in the juice and placed those in a fruit bag & into the bucket) And it measured SG 1.026 pH 3.61
1/4 tsp K- Meta
20 drops liquid Pectic Enzyme
8 cups sugar dissolved in 4 cups water. To SG 1.088
2 tbsp acid blend. To pH 3.54

At this point I let it sit overnight and checked in the morning. SG remained 1.088 pH same but I wanted a little lower so I added 1 more tbsp Acid blend. Volume is just under 4 gallons
Prepped yeast starter and it was ready (Very Foamy) in 15 mins. Pitched yeast at 7:30PM. With pH at 3.45.
Foam caps pictured was found the next day 4:00PM
 

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