Just Peachy

[Scooter68]

Log of Peach Wine I started this week. Plan to post new comments as things progress up until I start the Aging process.
July 11, 2017 Started this years batch of Peach Wine. This year a 3 gallon batch with a follow-on batch in a few weeks. (Don't have the appropriate 5 gallon carboy and 7.5 gallon bucket. (Yet) Used the following:
23 lbs fresh peaches (Large portion of 1 bushel of Overripe and Scarred Skin Peaches discounted from the local Orchard)
11 cups Sugar (Target SG 1.100-1.110 - Ending ABV of 14.5 - 15%) Made 1.5 - 1 Simple Syrup with water
Yeast K1-V1116
1/2 tsp Wine Tannin
3 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1/4 tsp Fermaid K
1 1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1/2 Can Frozen White Grape Juice Concentrate (Old Orchard Brand)
1/2 tsp Malic Acid (These amount are the totals required to reach pH 3.50 at Start
2 1/2 tsp Tartaric Acid
5 tsp Citric Acid
4 Campden Tablets (Total start volume = 4 gallons


Preperation:
De-stoned and cut up peaches and then ran them through manual Ricer (Stainless Steel Conical)
Added pectic enzyme to bucket as I 'riced' the peaches
Took the skins/remaining matter in Ricer and put them in Fruit Bag
Total volume of (Juice from Ricer 2.25 gallons without Fruit Bag)
Added Sugar as Simple Syrup (Ration 3 cups sugar to 2 cups water)
Volume after adding 7 cups of sugar (In simple syrup) 2.8 gallons
Fruit bag then added and it raised volume to 3.6 gallons

Could not get an SG reading due to pudding consistency of current mix.

Decided to add additional water for total volume of 4 gallons (Expecting LARGE quantity Lees with this batch) Ground and added 4 campden tablet covered bucket and left overnight hoping for better luck with SG reading.
pH reading was 3.65 - Began adding small amounts of Acid starting with Malic 1/2 tsp, Tartaric 1 1/2 tsp and Citric 3 1/2 tsp. pH meter reading was now 3.45
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July 12, 2017 10:00 AM Next morning Used large Wine Thief to extract sample - Had to cover top of Wine Thief to get it past a "Pudding Layer" or peach whipped cream layer that now exists after the tip of the thief was about half way down the bucket I uncovered the top. Repeated this until I had enough for a reading. SG Reading 1.102
PH had climbed to 3.65 so I added another 1 tsp Tartaric and 1 1/2 tsp Citric Acids - Adjusted pH was now 3.50.

Prepped Yeast Starter with:
Pinch (One fourth of an 1/8 tsp measure) Fermaid K
1/8 tsp Yeast Nutrient
3 oz very warm water
1oz of must
1 packet of K1-V1116
Stirred, covered container and allowed to set for 8 hours.

6:00 PM Pitched yeast Stirred
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July 13, 2017 3:00PM checked on wine, cap of thick peach 'pudding' has a couple of places where a white foam is bubbling through. Calling that positive signs of active fermentation. Took SG reading and it read out at 1.090. Did not check pH.

7:00PM checked on progress, white foam continues to bubble through the upper thick layer of peach pulp (Pudding consistency) Stirred batch and put a oversize tray under the bucket in the even of foam over flow.

Considered scooping off that pudding like layer at the top of the bucket. Did a dip with a medium strainer - the 'pudding' has way too much substance to it for discard. Very sweet and very peachy. Hopefully the foaming will be restrained enough stay inside the bucket. Perhaps the cloth fasten firmly around the top of the bucket with keep thing in the bucket.
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Next update Friday morning July 14

This is the 4 th batch of peach wine for me the first 2 were 1 gallon batches and very light on the palette. The third was a complete success and I am hoping to duplicate or top that batch. For this batch I used 1/2 can of white grape juice to add body and as a sweetening addition to the sugar. (This was part of one of Jack Kellers receipes. Hope the grape doesn't over power the peach.

 

[bkisel]

Don't think I'd worry about 1/2 can over powering the peaches. I used 2 cans, along with brown sugar and honey, to back sweeten my peach batch (24 lbs. for 6 gallons) and plenty of peach flavor and aroma remained. I think adding a 1/2 can grape concentrate to a 4 gallon batch at fermentation would have much less effect than what it would have at back sweetening.

BTW, the peach wine has become my wife's favorite wine.

 

[Scooter68]

Tis now my favorite after batch 3. Sitting there smelling the aroma of fresh peaches before even engaging the taste buds is fantastic.

My favs in order are Peach, Blackberry (With that white grape additive), Blueberry, Black Current, and Black Raspberry. Believe that's all I'll spend my time in in the future.

As to the grape effect - I hope you are correct - at present I can definitely make out the grape influence in taste. Since it is only starting day 3 of fermentation I hope that impact will lighten. Now I have to go see if my bucket overfloweth with foam and pulp.


One last question. Last night I used one of the remaining peaches sliced up onto some vanilla ice cream. A food fantasy come true. Now the question is could a hint that same flavor be imparted to a peach wine with the addition of vanilla? (Vanilla bean?)

 

[Scooter68]

Progress Report - Friday July 14, 2017 9:30 AM SG reading 1.038 WOW !!

Had to check twice then I wondered about my original starting reading.

Self-doubting starts.

Reviewed what I did and how many times I did the initial SG reading. High Confidence in that reading and this on . So Once last check point - Sample the must. OH YES! It is definitely and Alcohol containing beverage.

UPDATE - 6:00PM SG now 1.018 pH 3.25 Much fewer solids in the must - still quite cloudy but sediment is starting to fall and except a moderate layer of foam and floating pulp things are looking much better. Could be racked to a carboy at these numbers but I'll wait another day at least to give the pulp and skins more chance to break down and release all flavor. Sampled and quite good for so early on. ABV to the taste seems a little lower than expected but it's not finished fermenting yet and the solids in the liquid is likely to be masking the alcohol content which by the numbers should currently be at 11.3%

 

[Scooter68]

The Fruit, the tools and the progress

 

[Scooter68]

Update Sunday July 16. SG at .0997 Racked to 3 gal. Carboy Plus 1/2 gallon carboy and 2 16oz bottles. All under Airlock. Hoping that the additional bottles will eliminate or reduce the amount of topping off needed.

QUESTION to the more experienced - When I rack and need to top off - Would it be safe to use a bottle of the first peach wine I made. It has sorbate but hopefully the quantity would be low enough not effect this wine's tast. That's a topping off AFTER fermentation is completely finished at the beginning or during aging as needed. My first batch was on the weak side with only 4 1/2lbs of peaches for a gallon but... it is a peach wine.

 

[Johnd]

If you top with your previous wine, assuming it has sugar in it (that's why you used sorbate), that sugar could ferment if you've not already sorbated your new wine. Other than that, no worries, a little topping shouldn't cause any substantial flavor change.

 

[Scooter68]

Thanks - the bottle/batch was back-sweetened to 1.004 so I need to be prepared for a Little additional fermentation if the new wine hasn't yet been sorbated when I top off. Shouold not be an issue. This new batch will be aging at least 9-12 months before being bottled. A little restart of fermentation shouldn't pose a big issue under airlock. Hoping not to have to use it but....

 

[Larryh86GT]

Tis now my favorite after batch 3. Sitting there smelling the aroma of fresh peaches before even engaging the taste buds is fantastic.

My favs in order are Peach, Blackberry (With that white grape additive), Blueberry, Black Current, and Black Raspberry. Believe that's all I'll spend my time in in the future.

As to the grape effect - I hope you are correct - at present I can definitely make out the grape influence in taste. Since it is only starting day 3 of fermentation I hope that impact will lighten. Now I have to go see if my bucket overfloweth with foam and pulp.


One last question. Last night I used one of the remaining peaches sliced up onto some vanilla ice cream. A food fantasy come true. Now the question is could a hint that same flavor be imparted to a peach wine with the addition of vanilla? (Vanilla bean?)

Your list of favorites is similar to mine:
Blackberry, peach, pear, plum, raspberry.

Larry

 

[Scooter68]

Larryh86GT - I like plum wine but unfortunately our plum trees have only produced a significant number plums once and that was before I started making wine. So someday....maybe their I'll have a plum wine in the making

 

[spaniel]

Regarding addition of white grapes overpowering, I would not be concerned unless you seriously dilute the peaches. My Ontario grapes ripen with my peaches so I used them, perhaps a gallom of grapes in the 7gal primary.

Regardin pounds per gallon peaches, the only thing I add to the peaches is the crushed grapes. I don't add ANY water. Some fruits (raspberry, elderberry) need it, but not peaches.

 

[Scooter68]

Regarding addition of white grapes overpowering, I would not be concerned unless you seriously dilute the peaches. My Ontario grapes ripen with my peaches so I used them, perhaps a gallom of grapes in the 7gal primary.

Regardin pounds per gallon peaches, the only thing I add to the peaches is the crushed grapes. I don't add ANY water. Some fruits (raspberry, elderberry) need it, but not peaches.

How many pounds of peaches do you use per gallon?

 

[Boatboy24]

How many pounds of peaches do you use per gallon?

Hard to say, as the amount of juice they yield can vary greatly; based on variety, ripeness, whether you're supplementing with grape juice, etc. A wide range, in my limited experience, but anywhere from 6-12 pounds.

 

[Scooter68]

Hard to say, as the amount of juice they yield can vary greatly; based on variety, ripeness, whether you're supplementing with grape juice, etc. A wide range, in my limited experience, but anywhere from 6-12 pounds.

Thank you Boatboy - I have used between 6-7 pounds per gallon and yes - I find that I need water to thin down the pulp which is so thick that a hydrometer will not work in the 'soup.' Blind comments without a certain knowledge of the water content of fruits is unreliable. Water content can vary wildly even within a single season. My peaches run through the ricer produced an awesome puree but the water content was low. In the end I added about a gallon of water to reach the volume I needed to get a 3 gallon end volume of wine.

Right now my 3 gallon carboy that just finished fermenting contains at least a gallon of lees. I have a have gallon carboy and 2 x 16 oz jars all under airlock but I still expect to need some additional topping off. Peaches product massive amount of lees. I processed my peaches through a ricer which rendered an excellent starting point assuring the best extraction of the flavors and aroma from the peaches. I used a white grape concentrate which contains minimum water so no water gain was experience with that unlike using actual grapes.

I will see if I can 'filter' out the lees to recapture liquid but the last time around it was a time intensive process and I hate exposing the wine to the air that much while I run it through a strainer. Actual paper Filters would never work as they would clog in about 5 seconds. What I've done before is to siphon off the clearest liquid until I get to the course lees. Then those I run through a fine strainer. The bag of fruit skins was removed of course when I racked into the carboy. That bag had very little pulp, it was mostly skins from the peaches. The result is at least one or two extra rackings to get rid of the majority of the lees. The resulting wine though - VERY well worth it.

The process started with a 4 gallon volume in the fermentation bucket. My goal is 3 gallons of wine. Additional water should not be an issue. The peaches were ripe but not loaded with juice we are already in high temp time here so water content in fruit drops rapidly now. The few remaining blueberries I'm picking are very firm and loaded with flavor, just not as much water as they had 6 weeks ago.

I'll try to take some photos this time through with pre-racking conditions and the straining process. Probably should stitch together a muslin bag to help with the final straining.

 

[geek]

Hmmmmm, I think I may be making a batch of peach wine this year.
Unlike last year, the peach crop this year is good in CT. Last year it just got destroyed with an early freeze....

 

[Boatboy24]

On my previous batches, I've been close to 8lbs per gallon and was still adding liquid. When I did my first one, @Julie recommended 4 cans of Welches White Grape/Peach to a gallon of water. That seems to work, though I've not seen the white grape/peach concentrate (or even plain white grape) at the stores in a long time.

Freezing first, then thawing prior to fermentation seems to help w/ liquid extraction.

 

[geek]

I never make a fruit wine without freezing the fruit first.

Jim, I haven't seen any white grape with peach concentrate, just white grape.

 

[Boatboy24]

I never make a fruit wine without freezing the fruit first.

Jim, I haven't seen any white grape with peach concentrate, just white grape.

http://www.welchs.com/products/conc...00-juice-white-grape-peach-frozen-concentrate

 

[Scooter68]

I've also resorted to 'coloring' my peach wine with either a a few sweet cherries (about 5-10 per gallon) or as I did this time- about an oz of Tart Cherry Concentrate. The change is not that noticable until the wine completely clears and you can compare with a finished batch without the coloring. The colored is definitely a more peach color rather than straw colored and there is no noticeable taste change from that little bit of Cherry.

Oh I agree Geek, I'm going to start another batch of peach here shortly - just two gallons this time but with a vanilla bean additive. (Got the idea when I had some extra peaches on vanilla ice cream last week.) Anyone who doesn't understand that - take a fresh, especially an soppy, juicy over-ripe peach and cut it up on some fresh Vanilla Bean ice cream. Good thing I'm trying to lose weight or I would have had another serving.

Just smelling a glass of peach wine is a reward in itself. Peach wine has risen to the top of my short list of favorites. It just beat out Black Currant, Blueberry, an Blackberry. Those last three are in a 3-way tie for 2nd place.

 

[spaniel]

How many pounds of peaches do you use per gallon?

I have no idea. As I said I don't add any water, so I have no ratio to worry about. Using ripe peaches I've never had an issue with lack of water.

Yes, the pulp makes using the hydrometer hard but I just deal with it. Once fermentation starts they fall apart into thing but fiber (I use pectic enzyme as well). I let the peaches sit on the enzyme overnight to start releasing their sugar and water before I try to measure SG.