Peaches and cream wine?

[Tommy C]

Are there any recipes for a peaches & cream wine? I've only done a few batches of different wines, but I'd like to get away from the more common stuff. I've gotten good reviews on my wines so far, and I know I'm going to get better!

I'm thinking an addition of whipped cream vodka and back sweetening with lactose for the creamy mouthfeel. Any thoughts?

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Tommy C and welcome. I don't have an answer for you but I have fermented milk (I am experimenting at the moment fermenting whey to make a traditional /historical Scottish wine known as blaand) and yeast will acidify the milk or cream so that it forms curds. Using vodka will not make a "wine" and the vodka won't (I think) have that acidifying effect on the cream but in lower alcohol solutions you may find that the lactose in the milk will turn to lactic acid and lactic acid creates sour notes. What you are trying to do sounds possible but not perhaps as a wine. More, perhaps, like a Bailey's - so perhaps you should be looking for a fruit schnapps drink as your base?

 

[Tommy C]

Using vodka will not make a "wine" and the vodka won't (I think) have that acidifying effect on the cream but in lower alcohol solutions you may find that the lactose in the milk will turn to lactic acid and lactic acid creates sour notes. What you are trying to do sounds possible but not perhaps as a wine. More, perhaps, like a Bailey's - so perhaps you should be looking for a fruit schnapps drink as your base?

Thank you, sir! I appreciate your input.

I'm thinking of adding the vodka/lactose combo to an already stabilized and cleared peach or strawberry wine. Theoretically, it should add the flavor without causing fermentation or clearing issues, unless there's something I'm not taking into account. Do you see any reason that wouldn't work?

 

[BernardSmith]

My one concern would be that the pH of the wine would be enough to clabber the cream or milk. I have never tried to measure the acidity of distilled spirits so I have no good handle on how acidic they might be but wine can be very acidic. I guess this is a suck it and see kind of experiment. You might want to try this with a glass of wine rather than a whole batch..

 

[Tommy C]

I'll give it a shot. I have some dry bottled peach wine that I can test with. Since I'm just using granulated lactose and not cream, I'm hoping I can avoid the issues you're describing. I'll let you know after I try!

 

[BernardSmith]

If you are using lactose and not cream I don't see this as a problem. Lactose is a sugar. It's the proteins in milk that help create the curds, not the sugars.

 

[Tommy C]

I am experimenting at the moment fermenting whey to make a traditional /historical Scottish wine known as blaand

I've never heard of blaand before. Can you tell me about it?

 

[BernardSmith]

Not very much to tell. It seems that the Norse and the Scots used to make a wine from the byproduct of their cheese making - the whey. Blaand does not mean "bland" as in tasteless but blond as in pale straw straw colored, which is how this wine finishes. Today whey is often viewed as a waste product but in the past cheese was made at home on crofts and farms but that was a very hard scrabble life and putting this whey to good use other than feeding it to farm animals would have been something that most crofters would have chosen and they made a wine from the by-product of their cheese making. Turns out that there are no published recipes that I have been able to locate as this was truly a folk product but about 15 years ago a fellow called Humphrey Errington who ran a dairy in Scotland started selling a drink he called Fallachan (Gaelic for hidden treasure) which was his version of blaand. http://www.armchairanglophile.com/delicious-discovery-fallachan-blaand/ . A few years later he ran into some trouble with his cheese and sold the recipe to a brewery - Arran Brewery - that promised to continue making this wine but I can find no record that they did.

A few people are currently making this wine as home brewers: here's one being made in Orkney (Scotland) . but this version uses acidified whey (using lemon juice or citric acid to clabber the milk) and not sweet whey that is produced by inoculating milk with cultures to create lactic acid from the lactose as you would when you make hard cheese). My guess is that the historical versions would have used sweet whey. Another possible way to make this wine today might be to use lactose free milk (yeast can ferment the sugars that result when you break down lactose), but you would need to acidify that milk to remove the calcium and other proteins from the milk otherwise the yeast will clabber the milk and you will get a soft cheese in your fermenter as well as the wine.

In my opinion, if you make blaand with sweet whey you need to boil the whey to kill the bacteria so that they don't continue to produce more lactic acid even as the yeast ferments added sugar.

Milk has perhaps 10- 20 points of sugar but that sugar is lactose and wine yeast cannot ferment lactose. My guess is that blaand likely had added sugars - honey, perhaps, or possibly barley sugars (malt). Or perhaps not. Perhaps traditionally it was about as alcoholic as kvass or khoumis.

I've made batches of blaand using both acidified whey and sweet whey (I make hard cheese). You might try adding say a pound of sugar or honey to every gallon of whey or you might make this closer to a wine by adding two or more pounds of fermentable sugars. I think whey has the nutrients that yeast need but you may want to add some tannin. I added some heather tips to my last batch.
The taste is ..um... unusual but if you are familiar with the taste of whey then it be so strange but as a wine it is a little different. It can taste quite refreshing but I think it tends to need a little back sweetening. You might try using lactose to back sweeten.

 

[franc1969]

This sounds incredibly interesting to me. I have been contemplating a lactomel whey mead since I first heard of it, but had never heard of blaand before. I do make my own cheese, like a paneer or ricotta with lemon juice or vinegar. I drink the leftover whey, or use it in soup or breads, but have too much leftover.

 

[BernardSmith]

I have continued to do some research into the historical versions of blaand and it seems that this was really part of the culture of the Shetland Islands of Scotland and not perhaps so much preferred in the mainland. I found a recipe for blaand that was published (originally) in 1926 and it does seem as if the sweet whey (made from buttermilk - which is to say , the whey left over from churning butter) was "simply" stored and carried in wooden kegs by crofters and fishermen and that the whey would ferment in those kegs. That suggests to me that the wooden staves were probably contaminated with various Brett yeasts. Some Brett can in fact ferment lactose (Clausenii, I think). The recipe notes that if the whey wine is stored for too long it loses all effervescence and tastes like vinegar but that it can be revived by adding another more fresh batch of whey. If whey is about 5% lactose then this would make a drink equivalent to a strong beer.

At the moment I have a batch or two sitting on some Brett and I will see if this works but I just got myself some lactase and plan on adding this to my next batch of sweet whey. The lactase will break down the lactose into simpler sugars that Saccharomyces (wine yeast) can ferment so I will see what this tastes like (perhaps with some added fruit)

 

[Scooter68]

I'm a big fan of the old Creamsicles (Orange and Vanilla Ice cream) but that's another subject]\


Not long ago I had saved some of the pulpy gross lees from a batch of peach wine. I put it on a bowl of vanilla ice cream and then decided to try something. It might be close to what you are trying to do but without the actual milk.

I used about 1/4 of a vanilla bean in a 2 gallon batch of peach wine. I think that might be close to what you are looking for perhaps? Unless you are thinking something more along a Bailey's cream consistency.

I've yet to bottle my peach vanilla because it's refused to clear but it is now about 18 months old and while still pretty hazy, I'm about to go ahead and bottle it. I've hit with plenty of pectic enzyme, Bentonite (Twice) and most recently Chitosan. Still hazy. Thinking of a label along the lines of

Lazy Hazy Days
Peach Vanilla Wine

 

[Al Hatfield]

Tommy C, did you end up trying this out? It sounds great. If it worked out for you I’d love to hear the recipe and try it out myself.

 

[Scooter68]

Yes, It worked out quite well. It refused to clear completely and after bottling I did end up with some sediment dropping out in the bottles but other than that it is great. The 1/8 of a vanilla bean per gallon is enough. Mine turned into a 2 gallon batch - I had planned on 1 gallon with vanilla and blend with an other gallon of straight Peach. Ended up using 1/4 vanilla bean for the two gallons. A lot will depend on the freshness and strength of the vanilla bean itself.
The recipe is just a basic peach wine recipe. Keep in mind that I go to a local orchard and buy overripe and 'damaged' peaches and then cut and process those myself. It take a while to run them through a slow juicer machine but you could cut up the peaches, freeze them and then bag (Fruit fermentation bag) and mash them. Do at least a double or triple dose of pectic enzyme. and be patient - one year to clear is not far fetched So patience is key here. I generally use a standard recipe for all my fruit wines unless the fruit already has plenty of tannin. With peaches I use about 6-7 lbs per gallon so that I need almost no water other than what I need to dissolve sugar for my simple syrup. Mashed peaches regardless of how you mash them will produce a must that is close to a pudding consistency so dose it well with K-meta when mash and give the must at least 2 days to break down. Getting an SG reading is tough with a pudding thick must. Is usually end up waiting 2 day to get a final Pre-Ferment SG reading. To get it I drop in the Hydrometer in a large testing tube and twist the tube back and forth until the hydrometer stops sinking.* Repeat that 3-4 time and take a reading. Then push the hydrometer down well below the reading level and repeat the twisting action until it stops rising and record that reading - repeat that 3-4 times. Then take your best guess or average the readings. It's easier if to do if you can wait at least 2 days before taking a reading but you have to watchout for the fruit to spoil rather than fermentation starting. A ROYAL PITA to do but I can never get juice separated from the 'pudding must" to us for testing.

* I set the testing tube on a table and put in the hydrometer. Then put both hands around the testing tube and rapidly twist the tube back and forth between both hands. (Imagine you are rolling an pencil rapidly between your hands) Just remember that you have to keep that testing tube flat on the table top.

If anyone has better idea on how to get an accurate reading with a thick pudding consistency must have at. I can never trust the juice I (When I try to filter it off) to provide an accurate sugar content (SG) reading.