Peach Wine

2018

Around June 30 price of peaches dropped to $0.67/lb. By 7/4 they were up to $1.29, but I think was literally just that day, a few days later they were down to $0.90. Shoot for the end of June.

I bought 50 peaches (~15 lbs) for 6 gallons. I cut them into chunks and let them sit for 2 days in water with 1T of pectolase. They didn't break down as much as other fruit, so in future batches, cut them up smaller and add more pectolase.

I didn't record this at the time, but I think the PAV was around 17% and the end product was just a bit too sweet. I did let it go a long time (~6 weeks) to try and get that sweetness down, but it was still just a bit too much. In the future I think the highest I should go is 15% for a strong, sweet wine.

2019

Price dropped to $0.57/lb around June 15. Bought 6lbs. Cut into thin strips and mixed with 1.5T pectolase. Added about 3 liters of water.

Took 1:20 to cut a single peach.

Two days later mash looked good. The peaches were really soft so I just mashed them with my hands and filtered out what I could with a sieve. I had to add about 0.5 gallon to bring it up to 2 gallons. I started by adding 1lb of sugar, I expect to add at least one more. I ran out of yeast nutrient, so we'll see how it does without.

A day later I checked and fermentation had not started. New wine supplies had arrived that day. So I used the new nylon bag to filter the mash. I then used the hydrometer to get it up to ~12% PAV. I didn't weigh as I went, but it was probably at least another 4lbs of sugar. Added 2t yeast nutrient and yeast. Over the next few days it was bubbling vigorously.

This came out really well, surprisingly has a bit of peppery spice.

Batch 2

7/28, price of peaches was $1/lb. Bought 18lbs. Unlike the peaches used previously these were huge, 1/2lb each, about 3" diameter. So while they were more expensive per lb than before, I actually think I'll get more usable material per $. It should also go faster because I think it will take about the same amount of time to cut them, but I have to do half as many.

Cut peaches on 7/29. These peaches are amazing, the pits practically fall out. I measured one at 250g of flesh to 8g of pit.

Filtered out juice on 7/31. Got 3 gallons @ 2%PAV. Added 10lbs of sugar and 3 gallons water to get 11%PAV. Removed 7lbs of waste, estimate the pits at 1/2lb. So from 18lbs, I got 10.5lbs of juice or 58% yield.

On 8/8 I racked the wine and added 1 more lb of sugar. The peach flavor was not as strong as I would like. There was also a lot of chunks even though I had filtered it. I'm thinking that was something that coagulated.