# Fresh peach wine



## houstongrits (Feb 7, 2007)

Okay. I have searched regarding peaches on this forum and don't see any answers to questions that I have regarding peach wine.
I am wanting to make wine from fresh peaches. I have the recipe and the amount needed.
I am freezing the peaches. I have added a small amount of sugar to the peaches to prevent them from browning. I have not added any pectin or lemon or anything else as I don't wish for it to taint the peaches for the wine. Once my fruit finishes ripening and I pull all of it from the freezer I intend to steam it in the steamer that Waldo shared with us. Will the steamer pull the juice adequately or should I juice it in a juicer instead and use the pulp in the strainer bag then add water for 5 gallons? (The recipe I have is a 5 gallon recipe)
My recipe does not call for banana or raisins. Is there a reason to add this to the wine? When would I add it and for what reasoning?
Thanks for all you experts out there and your help.


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## NorthernWinos (Feb 7, 2007)

Peach Wine sounds so good...I have steamed many fruits but never peaches...it does mention them in the instruction booklet. 

You could probably put the leftover pulp in a straining bag and add it to the must, it would probably give more flavor, tho there isn't much left to the fruit when I do berries....Waldo has done that with a wine...he'd be the one who could help you out on that issue.

Good luck, and please Post some photos for us to share...


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## grapeman (Feb 7, 2007)

I made a peach wine last year and was VERY disappointed with it. Very little peach smell and even less peach flavor. I also had another person's last weekend.15 tasters, 1-375 ml bottle for everybody and half of that left. One guy said it was the worst wine he ever had.


Don't want to discourage you, but you might want to try a gallon batch first.


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## kutya (Feb 7, 2007)

I have made two peach wines, both 1 gal. the first was disappointing, due to lack of flavor. The second batch I used fresh peaches, but I added two cans of canned peaches in heavy syrup, and that seamed to really perk things up. I will mention that both batches took forever to clear. I'm thinking in the 6 month range. I suppose you could add super klear it might help???


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## smurfe (Feb 7, 2007)

You add the raisins or bananas to a peach wine to add body. It will be very thin without this. I read this from Jack Keller's site. He had 3 recipes for peach and a description of each. Might check it out.


http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques26.asp


Smurfe


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## jobe05 (Feb 7, 2007)

houston: I have enough fresh peaches that I have cut up and frozen to make5 gallons. For flavor and body, I purchased 5 cans of Welche's White Grape Peach concentrate. I won't use all 5 of course, but got them because they were there. I plan on adding a couple upon fermenting, and 1, maybe 2 to sweeten back with. 


Being new to the steamer thing, I'm going to crush mine by hand and ferment that way. Next year at peach harvest, I'll will plan on some for steaming to see how that goes.


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## Waldo (Feb 7, 2007)

houston, I have not steamed any peaches yet but believe you can successfully do it. I would definately add the pulp to a strainer bag and put it in the fermenter along with about 2lbs of thinly sliced bananas, peeling and all which will add body to the wine. Be prepared to age it for a minimum of a year. My first Peach was from Vinters Harvest and I was greatly disappointed in it at bottling but 8 months later it was an awesome wine. Even at that, it had only a subtle taste of the fruit from whence it was made. Such is the case with a lot of wines made from fruits.


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## pkcook (Feb 7, 2007)

houston, 


I have made peach wine from Welches white grape/peach juice and boosted the flavor with Welches frozen concentrate white grape/peach. I would recommend using the frozen concentrate to bring your sugar level up to the appropriate level rather than table sugar. You will get a much stronger peach nose and flavor using the concentrate.



*Edited by: pkcook *


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## Bill (Feb 7, 2007)

PK:
I have 2 gallons of the peach and grape about 4 months old
I just racked it yesterday for the third time and I got a
pretty good taste of it with the plastic hose and it had plenty
of peach taste already. I am thinking of starting another batch
and that is the only way I will make it from now on


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## houstongrits (Feb 8, 2007)

Waldo said:


> houston, I have not steamed any peaches yet but believe you can successfully do it. I would definately add the pulp to a strainer bag and put it in the fermenter along with about 2lbs of thinly sliced bananas, peeling and all which will add body to the wine. Be prepared to age it for a minimum of a year. My first Peach was from Vinters Harvest and I was greatly disappointed in it at bottling but 8 months later it was an awesome wine. Even at that, it had only a subtle taste of the fruit from whence it was made. Such is the case with a lot of wines made from fruits.


Thanks all for the info.
I am using a recipe from eckraus.com. I have found that they are very supportive by phone should I require help. I purchase some supplies from them too as my local brew store is hike away. I will try the bananas when I get ready to make it. Waldo - I have the peaches in the freezer sprinkled with sugar to prevent or retard browning. I didn't want to add lemon or fresh fruit or anything foreign that might screw up the process. Should my bananas be slightly over ripe?
Oh - gonna take some pictures soon. That scuppernong wine that I couldn't get to clear? ... IT'S CLEAR! Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! It looks like great looking beer in color! The taste is good too - of course needs to age. My blackberry is awesome! It needs to age too because it is warm on my tummy. So I have 10 gallons of wine bottled, about 4 waiting for bottling, 10 more "brewing" and getting ready to do the peach when I have a carboy available. 
My dad has a new row of blackberries, transplanting some elderberries and getting ready to trim the muscadine vines soon. WOW. This is fun! The worst part is trying to be patient enough to wait to drink this stuff!
Thanks for everyone's help and advice. Waldo if you (or anyone else) can let me know about those questions I would appreciate it!


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## Badhibit (Feb 8, 2007)

huston, I have made wine from fresh peaches. I used 13# of peaches. Icrushed the peaches and all ingredientsexcept YEAST in a crock with1 gal. of HOT water to dissolve the sugar, and to get out the juice and color. Let it cool to 70* and added 4 more gal. water and yeast. Before bottling add antioxidant tablets to preserve flavor &amp; color. Which is pure ascorbic acid. 1 tablet is 100 milligrams of ascorbic acid. U need 1 per gallon. Hope this helps. Badhabit


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## pkcook (Feb 9, 2007)

Bill said:


> PK:
> I have 2 gallons of the peach and grape about 4 months old
> I just racked it yesterday for the third time and I got a
> pretty good taste of it with the plastic hose and it had plenty
> ...




Bill,


I made my first gallon of welches from straight up bottled juice and it was OK. I made another 6 gallons and used 5 gallons of straight up juice and 6 cans of concentrate. I saved the last bottle from the first batch and tried it with a bottle from the second batch. The difference was incredible! The first batch had very little peach nose and the flavor resembled apple more than peach, but the second batch was "ALL PEACH!" The nose was intense and the flavor was great! The best part was how easy and cheap this type of wine is to make.


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## Waldo (Feb 9, 2007)

By gawshpklets be a posting that there recipe on here then podner



*Edited by: Waldo *


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## houstongrits (Feb 13, 2007)

Waldo said:


> By gawshpklets be a posting that there recipe on here then podner


Hey, hey Waldo! 
I have been wondering about the banana's in the pulp bag for the peach wine. I don't have that in a recipe. What is the reasoning for using bananas? I see you said not to peel them. I was going to juice my peaches thru the juiceman juicer and put the pulp in the bag. Should I use just ripened bananas or overripe bananas and should I slice them and put them in the pulp bag with the peach pulp or should I peel them and juice them with the peaches and put the peels in the bag? Lots of questions but you seem to be "DA MAN"



Thanks again for your help.


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## Waldo (Feb 13, 2007)

I like mine fully ripened, just where they are beginning to darken on the skin. Slice them in about 1/4" slices and place in the strainer bag with the peaches. It adds amazing body to the wine without altering the flavor.


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## pkcook (Feb 19, 2007)

Hey Waldo and Bill,


Sorry for so long to reply, I'm finishing up a couple of classes before I retire from the AF and my parent's 50th was this weekend and much preparation was put into that. Here is the Welch's Peach wine recipe:


5 gallons White Grape/Peach bottle juice
6 cans White Grape/Peach frozen concentrate
10 tsp Acid Blend
6 tsp Pectic Enzyme
6 tsp Yeast Nutrient
6ea Campden Tablets


I added 5lbs of sugar that brought the SG to 1.110, so I added water to bring it down to1.100. I would advise keeping this at 1.080 to 1.090. I also don't have an acid test kit, so the acid blend was to taste and it worked for me.


I ended up spliting this batch up: 5 bottles dry, 10 bottles Semi-Sweet, and 15 bottles dessert style.


This worked out for me. I later made another 1 gallon batch just like this, but added .750L of Peach Brandy for a very nice peach port! I only have one bottle left that I am trying to put at least a year on before I open it. I will make another batch of the port!


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## dfwwino (Jun 18, 2007)

I ran across this thread while comparing notes with others on peach wine. I have been making peach wine for about 10 years. The first year or two, I did not care for the peach wine as it had little aroma, little body and was not very appealing. But with time and study, I determined that two things are necessary for good peach wine. One, add another base to add body. Two, lower the SG to 1.080-.085 to avoid a high alcohol wine. Fruit wines really benefit from lowering the percentage alcohol to around 11%. For body, I agree that adding raisins or bananas will help. Since my first few attempts, I have been adding either 1 liter of white grape concentrate or honey to add body. Each year, I make one five gallon batch of peach wine with one liter of white grape concentrate and one five gallon batch of peach mead, substituting 8-10 lbs of honey for sugar. I also use a White labs sweet mead liquid yeast. I usually obtain a very flavorful wine with a good peach nose. Also, I sweeten it back at bottling to enhance the nose. Peach wine just takes some adjustments and tinkering to derive the right combination.


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## jsmahoney (Jun 27, 2007)

WOW! I'm glad I took the time to look over this section on Peach wine. I have a friend that is bringing me over 15 pounds of peaches to make 5 gallons ofwine for him. (my first time with peaches) I don't want to mess it up??!!!!!!!




so, if I read this correctly, I should need to add some kind of Peach puree or Harvest Peach Fruit base, and Grape concentrate? Along of course about 2 pounds of ripe bananas and raisins. Keeping the S.G at 1.080-1.085. Is that right!?


I think I'm in trouble!!! Sounds to me like a "BIG" experimental mess! Yikes!






He's cleaning the peaches this week, crushing/mashing, them for me this weekend to start! Guess I need to get busy and order some things. George!!!!!


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## Joanie (Jun 27, 2007)

Wow! Your peaches are early!


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## jsmahoney (Jun 27, 2007)

Joan said:


> Wow! Your peaches are early!




Joan, I think he is getting them from a Farmers Market. He had purchased them early this last weekend and they were so good he asked if Iwould make him some Peach wine. Guess I never thought about it. We have quite a few people around here that will travel across state to bring in some "good" fresh fruit back.*Edited by: jsmahoney *


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## dfwwino (Jun 28, 2007)

Joan said:


> Wow! Your peaches are early!




Joan,


In Texas, the summer heat ripens all the fruit earlier than elsewhere. This year, our peaches ripened in the first week of June and another tree ripened in the third week of June. The wine grapes ripen in late July and early August. But this year, we're just lucky to be staying above water, as we're about to set a new record for June rainfall. Will the skies ever clear?


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## Joanie (Jun 28, 2007)

I've been watching your weather situation and it looks horrible. I can't begin to imagine what that's like!

We are in the opposite circumstances here. We need rain badly. We haven't had a nice 3 day soaking rain this season and it is needed. Our local strawberries are small as a result but they are sweet as sweet can be because there's been no rain. If this trend continues, cherries, peaches, and apples will be small too. Cherries may be further damaged if we get rain as they are ready to pick in mid July. They will fill up and split! Potato farmers here are having to irrigate which is unheard of. They grow them on muck land which is a step up from swamp. The usual growing routine is to make sure ditches aredug and cleaned out so heavy rain water can drain. Not so far this year!

Extremes in weather = evidence of global warming. We are certainly having some extremes this summer.


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## NorthernWinos (Jun 28, 2007)

Usually we are dry...this year we had over 9 inches in June...now this week we are into a drier pattern...so figure we might return to the dry times once again...


We had been so hot and the past two days have been bareable...today no wind and the mosquitoes are out with vengance...this is the first day that they have been a problem...usually the wind keeps them at bay.


We all wish the rains would just come regularly and not all at once....Just makes you realize you are not in control.


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## rgecaprock (Jun 28, 2007)

We have just had clouds and more clouds and an occassional afternoon burst. But at least it is keeping the heat down a bit. You guy who get hit with the heat and not used to it must be miserable but it isn't everlasting like it is here in Houston.


Ramona


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## OldWino1 (Jun 30, 2007)

my daughters nickname is peach So we have made several 5 gal batches of peach. Yes the bottles do take a while to clear just keep those air locks filled and it will be fine. Yes I have 5 gal batches that have taken 4 to 5 months to get to the bottle. And I have used bentonite and iching glass just like the kits to hassen the clearing process. This will cut the time alot.


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## jsmahoney (Jul 6, 2007)

pkcook; (I later made another 1 gallon batch just like this, but added .750L of Peach Brandy for a very nice peach port! I only have one bottle left that I am trying to put at least a year on before I open it. I will make another batch of the port!) 


I have 5 gallons of peach I'm working on, correct me if I'm wrong, but you added to the one gallon batch .750L of Peach Brandy and then bottled it? I plan and doing some experimenting with this 5 gallon batch too, and am looking for the right options. 
1. Adding the Peach brandy for a port at bottling? Right?
2. after 5-7 days rack, then rack in three weeks adding 100% peach juice to sweeten and/or to top off; then racking every six weeks topping off with the peach juice, until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar


Not for sure if I'm right in doing this, but have been reading up on some different recipes. Hoping to get a nice "Peach" wine, but not to sweet. What do you think?*Edited by: jsmahoney *


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