Fermenting peaches

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Fermenting peaches

Postby bazza » Monday Mar 03, 2008 8:12 pm

Hi Guys,

My parents have a peach tree in the backyard, and right the moment it is teeming with peaches. Even with preserving and pies we always have peaches coming out of our ears, so I figured why not stick a few in the fermenter and see what happens :D

Unfortunately I have never done anything that wasn't based on a can, so I'm not entirely sure where to start. I did a search on the net, and only turned up these 2 sites:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/324318
http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/peach02.html

From those sites I gather it is pretty much just peaches, water, sugar and yeast, with maybe some honey for flavour. From other things I have read I probably need to boil the fruit to sterilise it and remove any wild yeast. Anything else I should look out for?

Anyway, this is my plan at the moment:

* 5 kg peaches
* 8 litres of water
* 1 kg dextrose
* champagne yeast

Freeze peaches over night, then skin, mash, and bring to the boil in 8 litres of water.
Boil fruit for one hour, adding in sugar, then place in ice bath to rapidly cool.
Strain peach mixture into fermenter, add yeast and leave to ferment until complete.


Any comments or feedback would be much appreciated.

Bazza
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby timmy » Tuesday Mar 04, 2008 6:51 am

Bazza,

There was a recipe for Apricot Wine somewhere on the ABC site (do a searchy to find it...) that looks nice and could probably be adapted. From memory they used white wine yeast and nutrient (you'll need that because your yeasties won't have any lovely malt to eat...). They also added some other chemical that I can't remember for sterilisation.

I made an apricot wheat a while back and I reckon a peach version would be great. It was Coopers Wheat kit + tin of wheat malt + Wyeast 3068 + 2-3kg frozen and thawed fruit (added at racking).

Or if you're in the SE suburbs I'll gladly take some off your hands in exchange for some brew....

Cheers,

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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby James L » Tuesday Mar 04, 2008 10:59 am

you could always make a nice light flavoured beer like a blonde, and add the peaches into secondary once primary is complete... Thats only if you are after a peach beer...
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby rwh » Tuesday Mar 04, 2008 11:39 am

I'm going to be doing something similar soon. Here's my recipe (that my housemate got off the net; she's the one that actually wants the peach wine):
Peach Wine Recipe #2 (Summer Evening)

Ingredients for 1 US gallon:

Peaches (very, very ripe) 2 1/2 to 3 lb.
White sugar 2 lb.
Dark brown sugar 1 lb.
Acid blend 1 teaspoon
Grape tannin 1/4 teaspoon
Pectic enzyme 3/4 teaspoon
Yeast nutrient 1 teaspoon
Orange juice (for yeast starter) 1 1/2 cups
Yeast 1 Pack (LALVIN 71B-1122 Preffered for this recipe)

Wash the peaches, cut them in pieces, discard the stones and any spoiled parts and smash the pieces with your clean hands.
Add enough boiling water to cover.
Let stand overnight.
Add the pectic enzyme in the morning and let stand another day.
On the third day strain through cloth, such as muslin or a nylon bag.
Wring it out well to get all the juice and discard the pulp.
Stir in the acid blend and the grape tannin.
Dissolve the two sugars in boiling water.
When it is cool, add it to the peach liquid.
Add enough water to make about 7 pints, total.
Let it cool to 80 F, or less.
Prepare the yeast starter by placing the orange juice in a suitable bottle. The temperature of the orange juice should be about 80 F.
Add the yeast and the yeast nturient.
Shake it to mix and then loosen the cap. Be sure the cap is loose!
When the starter is bubbling nicely, in 1 to 3 hours, add it to the peach liquid.
Make up the volume to about 1 gallon with water.
Put in a stainless steel or enamel stock pot with a lid.
When the fermentation slows, in 1 to 2 weeks, move it into a jug and place on an air lock.
Make up the volume to 1 gallon with water, if necessary.
Rack as necessary to clear until ready for bottling.
This wine has been known to complete its fermentation quickly and clear well. Bottle when still and clear, at an SG of 1.000. This wine will taste better if it aged several months to a year.

And here's another one, which I'm not going to use. It's a bit simpler:
Peach Wine Recipe #1

2 1/2 lb peaches (about 10 peaches)
7 pts water
Sugar to get SG=1.100 (about 2 lb)
1 Campden Tablet
1 1/2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme powder
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
1/4 tsp tannin
1 pkg wine yeast

Wash peaches, quarter, remove stones and any brown patches.
Leave the skin on and remove all of the reddish colored meat around the stone.
Place peach quarters in nylon straining bag and place in primary.
Crush peaches, extracting as much juice as possible.
Add dry ingredients to primary except yeast.
Add hot (hot tap works fine) water and mix thoroughly.
Cover and let set for 24 hr.
After 24 hr add wine yeast.
Ferment for 3-5 days (SG=1.040).
Rack into secondary and attach air lock.
Rack in 3 wks and again in 3 months.
If you can, let it age a few more months or up to a year.
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby drsmurto » Tuesday Mar 04, 2008 2:04 pm

Dodgy memory is telling me that Paul Mercurio makes a commercial peach beer, if i was to guess it would probably be some sort of wheatie?

Sorry, back to sleep i go.
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby bazza » Wednesday Mar 05, 2008 7:05 pm

Thanks guys, that helps me a lot. All of the recipes look fairly similar, they just seem to vary in amount and procedure. I might use the recipe on the ABC site (http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1559025.htm), mainly cause the ingredients are in metric and I won't have to convert them :D

timmy wrote:Or if you're in the SE suburbs I'll gladly take some off your hands in exchange for some brew....


I'm actually in the far western suburbs Tim (Werribee), however I work in the CBD and my girlfriend lives in the SE. If your still interested send me a PM and we'll see if we can work something out.

Bazza
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby Chris » Thursday Mar 13, 2008 8:42 am

Firstly, SANITISATION, not sterilisation!

The chemical added was quite possibly metabisulphate. I wouldn't do it though.

As far as the recipe goes, I'd consider an amount of citric acid.

And finally, DON'T BOIL THE PEACHES UNLESS YOU WANT JAM!!! Heat them to around 70-75*C and hold for 20-30mins. That is easily sufficient to kill off wild yeasts. Boiling will release pectin that may cause your beer to 'set.' You don't want that, as the pectin molecules clog up your tap. If you must boil, consider adding a pectinase, but when it comes down to it, do you really want to add more stuff to your brew than you have to?
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby rwh » Thursday Mar 13, 2008 10:36 am

The recipe I've got has grape tannin, pectic enzyme and acid blend in it. But then it recommends a yeast that's particularly good at reducing acid levels (Lalvin 71B).
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby bazza » Tuesday Mar 18, 2008 4:49 pm

Chris wrote:Firstly, SANITISATION, not sterilisation!

The chemical added was quite possibly metabisulphate. I wouldn't do it though.

As far as the recipe goes, I'd consider an amount of citric acid.

And finally, DON'T BOIL THE PEACHES UNLESS YOU WANT JAM!!! Heat them to around 70-75*C and hold for 20-30mins. That is easily sufficient to kill off wild yeasts. Boiling will release pectin that may cause your beer to 'set.' You don't want that, as the pectin molecules clog up your tap. If you must boil, consider adding a pectinase, but when it comes down to it, do you really want to add more stuff to your brew than you have to?


Thanks Chris, thats good advice.

I followed the recipe on the ABC site (linked on previous post). I didn't boil the peaches, although I did add them to pre-boiled water (gas was off for a few minutes before adding the peaches). The recipe included pectanise which should hopefully remove any pectin in the brew.

The fermentation appears to be subsiding on the peach wine. Although I think I'll leave it another week before I do the first racking. I'll let you guys know how it turns it.

Bazza
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby Chris » Tuesday Mar 18, 2008 6:46 pm

Sounds like it'll be tasty. Definately let us know how it goes.

Now I feel like a peach. Eating one that is.
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby Pale_Ale » Thursday Mar 20, 2008 9:33 pm

I've got about 2kg of peaches from the tree and I was thinking of doing quite a concentrated batch with a small amount of malt, dex and EC118. Would be interested to see how you go.
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Re: Fermenting peaches

Postby bazza » Sunday Dec 28, 2008 8:27 pm

Hi All,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but as we just opened a bottle of the peach wine for Christmas I thought I should let you know how it went.

I followed a recipe off the ABC site (http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1559025.htm), substituting the apricots for peaches, and doubling the ingredients to make 10 litres instead of 5.

Unfortunately the result was a little disappointing. It's a little like drinking alcoholic water with a hint of peach flavour. Although I was impressed with how the wine mellowed out after 6 months in the bottle. I tasted it at bottling time and it hard a harsh alcohol flavour to it, however after 6 months it is very smooth.

I plan to try making the wine again next year when the tree is fruiting again. This time I will increase the amount of fruit I use though. A fruit wine table I read in a book suggests using 1.5 to 3 kg of peaches per 5 litres, so I think I'll use 6kgs to make 10 litres and see how it goes.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll post back when I make the next batch and let you know how I go.

Bazza
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