Peach wine

[blackspanish777]

First attempt at peach wine.

One can of vintners harvest peaches
5.5 gallons of water
11.5 lbs of sugar
3 tsp acid blend
4 tsp yeast nutrient
2.5 tsp pectin enzyme
.5 tsp wine tannin
5 campden tablets
1 packet red star premier cuvée wine yeast

Really excited. Though worried about too much water when I add yeast. Thoughts? Letting must sit over night

 

[grapeman]

I would have used 2 cans of the peach. Did you check the specific gravity to come up with the smount of sugar? It is always good to know what your starting gravity is.

 

[blackspanish777]

Well... I followed the instructions on the can. I didn't think to check the specific gravity until after I added the sugar. And now I am trying to calculate what my potential alcohol content is.


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[blackspanish777]

Sorry I forgot to type that after combining everything but the yeast my starting SG was 1080


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[sour_grapes]

Well... I followed the instructions on the can. I didn't think to check the specific gravity until after I added the sugar. And now I am trying to calculate what my potential alcohol content is.

Sorry I forgot to type that after combining everything but the yeast my starting SG was 1080

Your potential alcohol is about 10.5% to 11.5%. A good formula for ABV is (initialSG - finalSG)*131.25.

 

[blackspanish777]

OK Guys...added the yeast last night. Looks good this morning, it is definately fermenting. I want to increase the potential alcohol by adding sugar throughout the fermenting process. How is this accomplished. I am thinking I will dissolve sugar each day in warm water. Letting it cool and adding it. However, my yeast is for a five gallon batch. Should I add more yeast as adding water will take me closer to six? Thank you for all of yalls help.

 

[sour_grapes]

You do not need to add more yeast. The l'il buggers will take care of it. At the levels of ABV you will be shooting for, and for the yeast you are using, you do not need to "step feed" (i.e., introduce the additional sugar slowly). You would likely be best off to figure out how much sugar you wish to add, then dissolve it in water (perhaps making a simple syrup), and then add it in one sitting. Since you started at SG=1.080, you won't want to increase the SG by more than an additional 0.020 points, and probably more like 0.014 would be better. Check the SG before you add anything, add about half of what you think you will need to increase SG by your desired amount, stir, check SG again, and repeat as necessary. There would be much less chance of screwing up this way and way overfeeding the yeast.

 

[blackspanish777]

Well...I calculated that I would need to add an additional 1.5 lbs to get to estimated 12.5%. How do I calculate how much to add at a time so as to not overfeed the yeast?

 

[sour_grapes]

At the levels of ABV you will be shooting for, and for the yeast you are using, you do not need to "step feed" (i.e., introduce the additional sugar slowly).

Note that I said "you do NOT need".

 

[blackspanish777]

Ok I got confused at the part you were talking about SG. I just calculated that I needed an additional 1.5 lbs of sugar to hit my abv I wanted. How do I know what will raise it by .14? Another question, I have about 6 gallons of liquid now... If I add about a half gallon with my sugar that will get me to 6.5. That also happens to be the size of my carboy for my secondary. Can I just top up with water after each racking to keep it full??? Or should I downsize my carboy??? Thanks again


Making wine in South Texas since March 2014

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, how did you calculate that you need 1.5 lbs?

Topping with water is okay, but will likely make your wine taste/feel a bit thin. Better to rack down in your case, I believe.

And be careful: You are looking for an increase in your SG of 0.014, not 0.14.

 

[blackspanish777]

Recipe on can called for 11.5 lbs of sugar. So I multiplied that by 453.6 to convert to 5,216 grams. I converted my 5.5 gallons of water to about 25 liters. Calculated that I needed total sugar of 5,937.5 grams of sugar in total to get to a 12.5% ABV (12.5*19*25). Subtracted sugar added from sugar needed to get to 721 grams of sugar needed to be added. Converted that to lbs and that comes to about 1.6. Only thing I did not do, was measure the SG of the peaches and water without the sugar. However, the SG after I added the 11.5 lbs of sugar was 1080.

 

[blackspanish777]

Ok just wanted to update. Moved from primary to secondary over the weekend with a SG of 1020. Added 750 grams of sugar to my main carboy. I transferred and then remembered the sugar. The smaller batch is for topping up. Main is still fermenting away. But the smaller one has really slowed down. And the color changed and it even cleared a bit. Doesn't smell weird or anything. Thoughts?


Making wine in South Texas since March 2014

 

[sour_grapes]

Now for my peach wine. Recipe Link Here: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/peach-wine-44607/

I have a primary 5 gallon carboy (which I added sugar to after transfering from primary fermentation to help get the ABV up) (SG today at 1010) and a 1 gallon (did not add the sugar to, SG at 990) which I am planning to use for topping up. The 5 gallon is still fermenting away, however the 1 gallon is not. I am sure this is to me not adding sugar to the 1 gallon. I tasted the one gallon and it tastes awful. Not sure if I did anything wrong. I added a Campden tablet to the one gallon because it seems to be done fermenting and I wanted to prevent the wine from fermenting further. Does the peach sound like it is on track?

Any help is greatly appreciated as I am at a loss in general right now.

Everything sounds on track to me. I have no experience with peach, but most wines taste "awful" when they are just made. It should improve with age.

Yes, once the SG reaches a value of 0.990 to 0.995, then there are no sugars left for the yeast to eat. At 0.990, that fermentation is over.

By the way, a Campden tablet cannot really stop the fermentation. The yeast you are using can tolerate a bit of SO2 (the chemical in the Campden tablet).

Everything sounds fine. Have a drink and relax!

 

[blackspanish777]

Ok so fast forward a few months... Peach wine was clear but wanted to add a peach f pack... So i simmered ten pounds of peaches and then blended them up with an emulsion blender and then strained them before adding the mixture to my peach wine... 5 days later it looks like pulp has separated... Usually wine does this when it settles. But this hasn't settled anymore. Do I need to add pectic enzyme or a clearing agent?


Making wine in South Texas since March 2014

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[blackspanish777]

So finally broke down and added some peach flavoring to cover up the fact that I started with half the peaches I needed. Tastes good and will be bottling soon... Lesson learned.