Peach Wine

[Bodenski]

Good evening all. I haven't posted in a long while, as I seemed to think I knew everything for a bit

I have slowed down my wine making, but have several things going now. I finally picked up some right off the tree peaches, and have 4 gallons of peach wine going now. (Followed the recipe from EC Kraus website.). Today the main 3 gallon batch finished fermenting, and I can't believe how good it tastes even right now. I've had several wines that needed time to age (and some that I don't think time will ever fix) but I've had a few winners. I suspect this batch will be a winner.

9 lbs peaches. (Recipe called for 2.5 lbs/gallon, I went with three.)
6 Lbs sugar
1 tsp tannin
4 tsp acid blend

I think I used 71B yeast, but I didn't write it down for some reason. It may have been 1118.

I guess the reason to post now is to ask (for others that have done peach) do you ever back sweeten it? I don't think it will need it, but I'm curious what others do.

 

[Scooter68]

Yes, just about every fruit wine I make has to get a little bit of back-sweetening to bring out the fruit. Not always a lot but something (ending up between 1.002 and 1.014 (latter for very tart fruit like black currant and tart cherry.)

 

[robert81650]

Take one cup of wine and mix with 2 cups of sugar and boil.....Then add to the wine and see what the specific gravity is...................

 

[bshef]

I love peach wine! I have peaches in the freezer ready for a batch of wine. I'm afraid to start because I've never been able to make a decent peach wine. I always get an off taste, sort of musty sourness. I've made many other kinds of fruit wine with no trouble. It may be the peaches were lousy, these are much better but I don't want to waste them. I've thought about boosting with golden raisins or white grape juice concentrate. Any ideas/help/suggestions?

 

[Scooter68]

bshef How many pounds of Peaches per gallon ?
How do you prepare the peaches after you thaw them? Mash, juicer etc?
Perhaps the peaches sat too long before starting the ferment? As soon as you start thawing them I'd add some K-Meta and Pectic Enzyme to the bucket, even before they are thawed. A good peach must can be almost a pudding consistency at first.

 

[Scooter68]

Bodenski I'd do a typical bench trial with a cup of wine. A off-dry peach wine can be excellent. I tend to go a little past off dry towards semi-sweet but off-dry with a good peach flavor AND the aroma is awesome too. Just sniffing the glass is half of the enjoyment with peach.

 

[bshef]

Scooter68, I use three pounds of peaches per gallon. I think I mashed them (can't remember if I left the peel on), I don't think I froze the peaches in the past. I wouldn't have let them sit too long but they were not good and ripe. These were much better and nice and ripe. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try adding K-meta and pectic enzyme as they thaw. I'm sure the freezing will help break down the fruit.

 

[Scooter68]

If you can up the lbs/gallon ratio you'll get a deeper flavor. My last batch was 28 lbs for 3 gallons. Actual volume of peaches before adding sugar was just over 3 gallons and at the start the volume was just under 4 gallons after adding the simple syrup solution. A lot of lees and residue is lost with a peach fruit wine so I boost the volume to be certain of a good flavor and little to no water to top off at first racking.

 

[bshef]

That is possible. I think I have 9 lbs or more in the freezer. What yeast do you use?

 

[Scooter68]

EC-1118

Also I added another 2 cups of sugar dissolved in 1 cup water 2 days ago - Step feeding to reach about 16-17% ABV for a dessert wine. I have plenty of peach at about 12% for now so I thought I'd go heavy on this one. (That additional sugar effectively made the starting SG 1.118 for a potential 16.8% if it ferments dry. Just did that with a blueberry wine too and it's just about finished (need to check them later today) Yesterday the blueberry was at 1.004 with an effective starting SG of 1.121 (Also step fed that one as well.)

EC-118 has been a workhorse for me with only Black Currant from Juice failing to ferment dry.

 

[salcoco]

one problem with peach wine is the lag time for the fermentation to start. during this time some of the peaches can begin to spoil. develop a yeast starter before thawing the peaches this will get the colony of yeast large enough to start fermenting and cut down the lag time. another trick I use is to add about 2 lbs of sugar per gallon and pectic enzyme wile the peaches are thawing. both will draw the juice out of the peaches wait 24 hours and then pitch yeast starter. also use Cote des Blanc yeast, it is supposed to retain aroma on wine.

 

[Scooter68]

Solution to lag times for me has been to start with wine in upper end of yeast's fermentation temperature range then move to cooler location once started. With white or light wines (Peach falls in that category to me) Get them as cool as possible to preserve aroma and flavors.

 

[MarkMacQ]

I'm a newbie at wine making and started my first batch of peach wine last night. I actually made two buckets. My 5g pale looks good but my 2g doesn't. I didn't use a mesh bag or any additives to the 2g batch and the liquid looks darker and the top of the floating peaches look brown. Both buckets were covered with a similar thin towel with a rubber band around the top of the bucket and towel, making the towel taut across the top and keeping any bugs out. I didn't use any of the following in the smaller batch that were used in the larger one: filter bag, pectic enzyme, acid blend and campden tabs. I was following the "wild wine making" book's recipe for just the small one. I stirred it and the color of the submerged peaches was good. I'm now thinking I should have skimmed all the brown pieces off before stirring and adding the V1116 yeast. The larger bucket also had fruit floating in the bag but I'm guessing it didn't turn brown because the mesh bag's moisture kept the surface of the floating peaches moist and the color intact. I also might not have enough sugar in the small one. One thing I noticed just before i put the towel over the buckets last night was the smaller one was bubbling a bit and the larger one was not. Again, the smaller one just had peaches, water, sugar and now yeast. Is the small batch trashed with that darker color or can something be done to save it? Should I take a hydrometer reading? I have one but need to figure out how to use it. Possibly add some dissolved sugar? Sorry about the lengthy post.

 

[Scooter68]

Always take and track SG readings with the hydrometer From before you add sugar then just before you pitch the yeast (at a minimum those two times) then as the ferment progresses. Just use basic sanitation practices and you can return the sample to the batch. There is - no other way to keep track of progress and in your case you want to know the 'performance' of the wild method.

The brown could be exactly as you stated (Dried skins). My only concern is that peach wine is notoriously difficult to clear. Basic clearing yes but full haze free - may be tough without the Pectic Enzyme\

DON"T throw it out. Wait it out. Unless you start getting large amounts of nasty smells from it, let ride.

There is a thread normally at the top of this forum on reading a hydrometer. Key is to be consistent. Even if you fail to adjust for that surface tension curve, you are only going to be reading about .002 lower than the actual. (It's discussed in that thread)

 

[sour_grapes]

Should I take a hydrometer reading? I have one but need to figure out how to use it.

Take a looky here: how to use a hydrometer for newbies

 

[MarkMacQ]

Always take and track SG readings with the hydrometer From before you add sugar then just before you pitch the yeast (at a minimum those two times) then as the ferment progresses. Just use basic sanitation practices and you can return the sample to the batch. There is - no other way to keep track of progress and in your case you want to know the 'performance' of the wild method.

The brown could be exactly as you stated (Dried skins). My only concern is that peach wine is notoriously difficult to clear. Basic clearing yes but full haze free - may be tough without the Pectic Enzyme\

DON"T throw it out. Wait it out. Unless you start getting large amounts of nasty smells from it, let ride.

There is a thread normally at the top of this forum on reading a hydrometer. Key is to be consistent. Even if you fail to adjust for that surface tension curve, you are only going to be reading about .002 lower than the actual. (It's discussed in that thread)

Will wait it out. It may not be as bad as I originally thought. Peaches come all at once off the trees and shouldn't have attempted this without more prep and education. Could have froze them to buy some time. Definitely need to read posts here and other resources. Thank you

 

[MarkMacQ]

Take a looky here: how to use a hydrometer for newbies[/QUO

Will do, thanks

 

[mainshipfred]

This my second batch of peach is with 100 lbs of de-stoned halved peaches which were then placed in the freezer for 4 days, turned out to be about 6 gallons each in two different fermentors with 1/2 gallon of water each. The brix was 11.5 to start and I added 1.5 gallons of Chardonnay concentrate to each to bring it up to 23 or 1.096 sg. Used BA 11 and Cotes de Blanc and let the hydrated yeast start at room temperature for 24 hours before putting it in my walk-in at 55*. Now after 7 days the BA 11 is at 1.009 and the Cotes de Blanc is 1.001. I don't know how much I'll get post press which I'll do sometime this week.

 

[mainshipfred]

This my second batch of peach is with 100 lbs of de-stoned halved peaches which were then placed in the freezer for 4 days, turned out to be about 6 gallons each in two different fermentors with 1/2 gallon of water each. The brix was 11.5 to start and I added 1.5 gallons of Chardonnay concentrate to each to bring it up to 23 or 1.096 sg. Used BA 11 and Cotes de Blanc and let the hydrated yeast start at room temperature for 24 hours before putting it in my walk-in at 55*. Now after 7 days the BA 11 is at 1.009 and the Cotes de Blanc is 1.001. I don't know how much I'll get post press which I'll do sometime this week.

Edit: Pressed last night and got 13 gallons which I thought was pretty good but it was a mess. With a mesh bag in the press the sediment clogged the pores almost immediately so I placed a second bag on the bucket and let the, whatever you call it, peach pulp fill the second bag to about 1/4 full then hand rang it out to the consistence of a modeling clay. When done out of 100 lbs of peaches I might of had the bottom of a bucket filled 2" of pulp. I was a pain and took around 4 hours. I surely hope this turns out to be worthwhile.

 

[Scooter68]

I feel your pain Mainshipfred. Just racked my batch last Thursday. Once the siphon started sucking up pulp I stopped at about 2 & 7/8 gallons including what I could wring out of the mesh bag. That was out of about 3 7/8 gallons starting volume. The mesh bag (5 gallon bag for 3 gallon batch) wrung out pretty well but since I had used a slow juicer on the peaches there was still a lot of pulp in the bucket outside the bag.

I then poured the remaining pulp into a stainless steel strainer. I had to rock the strainer to get all that juice out working quickly with about 1/2 quart of pulp at a time. That went into a separate 2 liter container (Filled 2/3 rd) and both got airlocked. The Sg was at .994 and I wanted to give it a few more days to go a little lower. On Saturday I gave both containers a hit with Bentonite. Today or tomorrow I'll do one more SG read and hit it with K-Meta. I expect to lose another liter at least from the 3 gallon carboy and hopefully be able to top that off from the 2 liter carboy. Might resort to a bottle of Reisling to top off as needed along the way.

In the end - I think you'll be happy. This and Apple wine from homegrown apples are the two most labor intensive wines I make. Blueberry is a pain with all those tiny seeds but it ferments fast and clears quickly so I don't mind as much.

I did have to modify my press this year. The thing wasn't built right as far as I can tell. The only used nuts on the support arms to keep things together. That did nothing to support the pressure when the screw is tightened down. The thin metal covers over the long support bolts kept bending under the pressure so I added nuts above and below both ends of the support bolts. (Mine looks like this one except the two support bars were just long bolts with nuts above and below and the between the top bracket and the base it had a C-shaped cover over the bolts. (Tossed those when I added the nuts.)

Sorry for hijacking your thread again Bodenski