Peach Mead

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Meadini

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2020
Messages
78
Reaction score
90
I’ve always wanted to make a peach wine/mead. Lucky me, they were on sale today so I picked up 15 lbs. I plan on adding local honey to 1.080, adding pectin enzyme, making any necessary ph adjustments, and then pitching 71b. My question is-has anyone that has made this mead added water, or used straight peaches?
 
With all the wines I make for myself / a contest I avoid water.
At work water was a very inexpensive ingredient so it was maximized.
Do you want commercial quality or do you want better than commercial quality?

by the way, I run mead at 1.100, a lot of the solids don’t ferment so 1.080 will give lower alcohol,
 
With all the wines I make for myself / a contest I avoid water.
At work water was a very inexpensive ingredient so it was maximized.
Do you want commercial quality or do you want better than commercial quality?

by the way, I run mead at 1.100, a lot of the solids don’t ferment so 1.080 will give lower alcohol,
I certainly want the best I can possibly make. That’s a big part of me doing it myself. I’m purposely going a bit lower on the sg to hopefully balance a lighter(so I assume)flavored mead.
 
? Clarify what is lighter, the honey flavor now or the desired flavor after fermentation ?
I certainly want the best I can possibly make. That’s a big part of me doing it myself. I’m purposely going a bit lower on the sg to hopefully balance a lighter(so I assume)flavored mead.
* one can accomplish less honey flavor by drinking by the time it is a year old, ,,, honey notes get stronger with time.
* one can accomplish less honey flavor by using less honey with the residual being table sugar or using sugar and back sweetening with honey. You have the choice which

* one can make a stronger flavor by aging two plus years
* one can make a stronger honey flavor by using 100% honey and back sweetening with honey.
* one can make it seem stronger by adding a Carmel flavor extract or by cooking the honey (I like a day in a crock pot).
 
Great info! Thanks @Rice_Guy, I wrote all those points in my notebook to refer back to as needed. My main concern would be say a year down the road, the honey and alcohol overpowering the peaches.
 
The effect I would look at is oxidation and volatilization of low level, parts per million peach flavor compounds in the mead. To minimize this we run as low a primary temperature as convenient and run the primary under an air lock
My main concern would be say a year down the road, the honey and alcohol overpowering the peaches.
Clean alcohol does not have much flavor, Threshold is around 1%. Acetaldehyde (oxidized ethyl alcohol) is detected at lower levels, around 10 ppm. Again air exposure ,,, so top up or fill with marbles etc.
Yes Honey notes build with time, ,, but years, which is complimented by a natural oxidation of peach aroma. I don’t see any way to prevent age other than drink it in two years. ,,, Commercial folks fight oxidation with techniques as nitrogen flushing transfer pipes, nitrogen flushing the press, floating tank lids, and nitrogen flushing or vacuum corking when bottling.

Wine is a hedonic food, and low levels of byproducts add complexity/ interest which makes it better.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top