Fortified Peach wine

[Whispermatthes]

I have two peach trees in my backyard and had a good sized harvest this year of about four boxes though the peaches were small. I cut and peeled them and put some in the freezer and made a four gallon batch of wine with about ten pounds of fruit.
I sweetened with sugar to an SG of 1.095 and used the cuvée yeast from the wine store downtown, honestly I'm not even sure about this I bought a variety when I picked cherries and used them all during the summer. Anyway at about six weeks the fermentation had slowed some so I added another packet of yeast. I had a batch of cherry wine going at the same time in the same room and on the same day all the air locks dropped.
So I took a sample of the peach and shared it with my husband, he's not a big wine drinker but I needed a second opinion on the taste which I thought to be quite dry. He said it tasted like alka seltzer. So I decided to fortify it and happened to have a bottle of Hiram Walker whipped cream, which I figured would make a nice peaches and cream flavor. I added a total of 3 fifths to my four gallons of wine and bottled 20 bottles.
Here is my question for the more advanced winemakers; how do I find the new alcohol content? I have a hydrometer and my final reading on it before I fortified was 0.998.

 

[Johnd]

I have two peach trees in my backyard and had a good sized harvest this year of about four boxes though the peaches were small. I cut and peeled them and put some in the freezer and made a four gallon batch of wine with about ten pounds of fruit.
I sweetened with sugar to an SG of 1.095 and used the cuvée yeast from the wine store downtown, honestly I'm not even sure about this I bought a variety when I picked cherries and used them all during the summer. Anyway at about six weeks the fermentation had slowed some so I added another packet of yeast. I had a batch of cherry wine going at the same time in the same room and on the same day all the air locks dropped.
So I took a sample of the peach and shared it with my husband, he's not a big wine drinker but I needed a second opinion on the taste which I thought to be quite dry. He said it tasted like alka seltzer. So I decided to fortify it and happened to have a bottle of Hiram Walker whipped cream, which I figured would make a nice peaches and cream flavor. I added a total of 3 fifths to my four gallons of wine and bottled 20 bottles.
Here is my question for the more advanced winemakers; how do I find the new alcohol content? I have a hydrometer and my final reading on it before I fortified was 0.998.

If you bottled 20 - 750 ml bottles, you had a total of 15L, or 3.96 gallons after fermenting and your addition. Since you added 3 fifths of a gallon (three fifths of HW Whipped Cream) to your wine, you started with .6 gallons less than 3.96, or 3.36 gallons. The ABV of that wine is 13.125% based on your SG / FG numbers. Adding 3 fifths of 70 proof (35%) alcohol to that gives you a final volume of 3.96 gallons at 16.44% ABV. Give or take just a smidge depending upon whether your fifths were real fifths (757ml) or 750 ml, pretty insignificant.

 

[Scooter68]

Just curious - Why did you peel them? Skins of peaches have a lot of flavor and add a lot of the character to the wine. In my first batch the skins almost completely broke down during fermentation. I'm not aware of any serious negative element in a peach skin that you would want to eliminate.

 

[Whispermatthes]

Peeling peaches

It just didn't occur to me to leave the skins on them, I will try it that way next time.

 

[Arne]

You might want to keep an eye on those bottles. Since it sounds like you didn't degas or let it sit til it degasses on its own. Also if the walkers didn't quite raise the alcohol high enough that it killed the yeast off you could have a bit more fermenting going on. This may build pressure on the bottles and push the corks out or even possibly crack the bottles. Good luck with it, and welcome to the forum.

 

[Whispermatthes]

I added the potassium sorbate at bottling and Camden tablets in the last racking. I had an experience with the gas build up in my royal Ann cherry wine this summer and the first bottle I opened exploded like champagne but then I got a tip to chill the bottles in the freezer before opening and that has worked well, I only have a couple bottles left because it's very sweet and delicious we have been enjoying it often.
Thanks for the advice, I also have it stored in a wine cooler so I think I should be safe.

 

[salcoco]

I would suggest a higher pounds of fruit to gallon of water next time. try about 8lb per gallon. Also use a hydrometer to determine when the wine is complete not airlock activity. the reason it tasted like alka seltzer was because of the carbon dioxide trapped in the wine. it should have been degassed and cleared before blending with any other wine or fortified spirit. Pearson's square is usually used to determine the final alcohol content of a blend of two wines or wine/sprint. Google it and you will find some that it can be downloaded or others are part of the web site. unless the final blend is in excess of 30-40% alcohol I would add potassium sorbate to the blend.