what"s a fellow to do!

[Tenbears]

A friend who manages a local grocery store showed up at my shop today with 2 and about a half boxes of frozen peach slices. Each box holds 25 one pound bags of peaches. He asked if I wanted them. I said "What do I look like the local dump? Of course I want them! He said "I figured you could feed them to your pigs, I know you don't feed them garbage, but this really ain't garbage It just went out of date today, but we can't sell it." Now I have no intention of feeding it to my pigs. One day out of date, humbug. The question Is what to do with all these peaches? A pie or two maybe!

 

[richmke]

Local homeless shelter will take them.

 

[sour_grapes]

Yeah, right. I think we all know what is going to happen to those peaches. It won't be pretty, and I think that they will fall victim to thugs known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

 

[heatherd]

Considering the post is under the "country fruit wine" forum, my guess is some tasty jelly.

 

[Tenbears]

Well here is what I think I am going to do. See if this sounds right. 60 pounds of fruit will be used I plan on running it through a juicer/Processer making it into a puree. to that I will add 15 gallons of Ocean spray Peach white cranberry juice. Which also contains some white grape juice. I feel the grape juice will help with tannin, while the cranberry will help with acidity. to that I will add enough sugar to bring the SG to 1.080 for a alcohol around 11.5% I will adjust the Ta to .55-.60% and PH around 3.4 . 5 TBS pectic enzyme. 8 TBS yeast energizer stepped in . 3.75 tsp Kmet 24 hours prior to adding yeast.

Does this sound like a viable recipe for a fruit forward wine? or should I up the Chemicals by 20% because the puree will come to about 5 gallons.

 

[cintipam]

Personally I'd shoot for PH no higher than 3.3, even to 3.2. It will go up a bit with fermentation. Be prepared to add acid since white cranberries are just picked before ripeness and don't have the acid fully ripe cranberries do. Also since both cranberries and peaches are high in pectin up the pectic enzyme now to cut the haze later. Peaches have malic, cranberries both citric and malic, so blend should be ok. Some folks would add bentonite on day 3-4 of fermentation to promote clearing even more. Otherwise sounds good to me.

Pam in cinti

 

[cintipam]

Tenbears, are you thinking this will make 20 gals total? If so isn't that kmeta way high? 1/4 tsp per 5-6 gals would make it 1 tsp. You're using commercially frozen fruit and premade juice so no need to kill wildlife too much.

I saw on another forum you asked about using bentonite. Bentonite comes in 2 diff formulations, so do what your pkg says to do. Do not add more than the pkg says as the stuff swells a lot and if you use too much it is like trying to mix concrete.

I always copy and save really good info from trusted folks so I believe the next bit was saved by me from a post made by Turock. It might help you out.

One tbs per 1/2 cup hot water---this is for 5 gals pear wine in primary ferm. Be sure there's no lumps. Not necessary for it to stand 24 hrs. like you do when using it in the secondary. Just pitch it once you have it mixed. Pitch on 3rd day.
I add 1.25 grams per gallon.. Use very hot water when mixing it up and let it sit at least three hours (stirring occasionally) before mixing it in the pear juice.

Hope this helps

Pam in cinti

 

[Tenbears]

Yes, you are correct, 1 tsp for 20 gallons, don't know where my head was at. Must have been thinking 1/4 tsp per gal.

Thanks for the bentonite information, it was this batch I was asking about it for.

 

[Julie]

I usually keep my fruit wines around 3.5 to 3.6 ph, 1.080 is a good sg to start with. Plus I would add some tannins, you won't get enough from the Welch's grape juice. Your recipe looks pretty good but I think Inwould bump the acid up to .65% - .70% but you can adjust that after fermentation, trust your taste more than the numbers on the acid. Good Luck, and keep us posted.

 

[Tenbears]

I usually keep my fruit wines around 3.5 to 3.6 ph, 1.080 is a good sg to start with. Plus I would add some tannins, you won't get enough from the Welch's grape juice. Your recipe looks pretty good but I think Inwould bump the acid up to .65% - .70% but you can adjust that after fermentation, trust your taste more than the numbers on the acid. Good Luck, and keep us posted.

I had planned on adding some Chestnut tannin. I am not quite sure how much pre fermentation. I like to start a bit low as I can add after fermentation. The same with acid blend I usually do my fruit wines at .55 to .60%. if after fermentation or prior to bottling they are flabby I adjust to taste. I have found it much harder to lower acid post fermentation. Does that sound logical? Or is better results achieved starting higher pre fermentation.

 

[Julie]

I do the same, I prefer to adjust acid after fermentation and you can add tannins after fermentation as well.

 

[Tenbears]

Well we will see how things turn out. After pureeing all the peaches I came out with 6 gallons of puree, Nice and Juicy stuff. I placed that in my big fermenter which holds 80 Gallons. Then added 15 gallons of The Ocean Spray Peach White cranberry juice. 4Tbs Pectic enzyme, 20 lbs. Sugar which gave me a SG of 1.078 I figured that was close enough to my target, so I left it there. 5 tsp. Chestnut tannin, 3.5 Tbs. yeast nutrient. I will add the same when SG reaches about 1.040. And 1 tsp. Kmet filled the outer tank with clean water and set the thermostat to 80F.
Yesterday morning I mixed 5 packets of Lalvin K1-V1116 in 1 qt of 90F water and let stand 15 minutes. stirred and poured into the must immediately after I had vigorously stirred the must. By the end of the day it was going great guns.

Wednesday I will add the bentonite, and see what we get.