Peach Wine Woes

pitch with a higher tolerance yeast such as champagne....?

Rick

Sarge, Could you answer a couple of questions first. Do you know what SG you started at? Where is the carboy now and the general temperature of the room it is in? Depending on your responses, and I take it you don't like sweet wines; I guess you could try adding yeast nutrient and then a yeast starter to help it finish. BUT I would make sure the carboy is in a warm enough room to encourage fermentation to start again. Check out Jack Keller's wine site for instructions on a stuck ferment

As to the cloudiness of your wine, once you get the fermentation finished; then time and racking should help clear your wine. Hang in there. Darlene

Hi Darlene Thanks for the link to Jack's site. I will see if I can get the peach wine going. Unfortunately I folowed the recipe blindly and didn't measure the SG before pitching in the sugar. As an approximate calculation: 16lbs sugar added to 13 gallons is about 8 Brix added to the must. Do you know what a typical peach must SG is? I have moved the Wine into a warm area and I will try Jack's technique to restart in the next few days. Sarge

Sarge, Good-luck, and let us know how it is doing. I'm always hesitant to guess at a starting SG based on just the sugar added, because it doesn't take into consideration the sugar which is in the fruit. I usually try to shoot for a starting SG of 1.084-1.090 for fruit wines, so that when the must ferments to dry you're looking at about a 11-12% alcohol by volume. I usually do 1 gallon batches, so please excuse me while I think in those terms. Looks like you added roughly 2 lbs+ of sugar per gallon which equals about 4 cups+ per gallon. I just looked at Jack's recipes for Peach wine, and they call for 2 1/2-3 lbs per gallon, so I don't think you're out of line with the sugar you added (still we don't know how sweet the peaches were). If it were me, I would try to restart the fermentation and ferment to dry, because at this point my guess is that you don't have a high enough % alcohol to help the wine age and keep for a while. Darlene

Sarge, According to the FDA figures, ripe fresh peaches have a Brix of 6 to 12 or an SG of 1.022 to 1.047. If anything I would expect that you started with an SG on the low side. Were the peaches included in the 13 gallons or were they added to it. If they were included, then you probably started with Brix between 14 and 20. It is curious why it would have stuck. I would follow Dar's suggestion and go to Jack's site and try to restart it. Did you add any nutrient?

Ray

Darlene, I have some d-47 yeast going now in a 1/2 gallon of white grape juice. Once it gets going I will add it in to the peach wine which is now at 65F. The peach wine tastes very sweet and very peachy. I am wondering if I should add some more sterilized water to lighten the taste a bit? To the 14 gallons of peach must only 2 gallons of water were added. Sarge

Thanks for the information Ray. I was afraid I might have pushed the SG too far. But not so. The 14 gallons (I forgot about the extra gallon) of peach must contained 2 gallons of h20. Likely it was the lack of nutrients that stopped the fermentation. I don't like to add chemicals to my wine if I can avoid it. My wife is sensitive and won't drink any of my wine if I do. Usually I make wine from fresh grapes and I seem to have gotten away without adding any nutrients. What would be an alternative to nutrient additives? I know you can add lemon for citric acid. What could take the place of DAP? Sarge

Sarge, Don't forget to add some yeast nutrient....the yeast sounds fine, the temp sounds a little on the low side. Do you have a heating pad or a slightly warmer spot for it so you can get it closer to 70F. I don't know that I would add anything until you finish fermenting to dry. After all, it will taste differently when its dry, and you will need to decide how to top-up after you rack it off the lees. Darlene

Calling nutrients is stretching the definition of chemicals. Most people eat all sorts of food that is fortified by vitamins and minerals. Our cereals are absolutely coated with them. Nutrient is just vitamins and minerals for yeast. They need it and they will not hurt you any more than vitamin B will hurt you. campden and a few other additives might be suspect by some but nutrients should not be.

Ray

fermentation

appreciated.

Sarge, I'm just referring to regular yeast nutrient from a wine making store. If your yeast nutrient is called DAP, then fine. Good-luck. Darlene

While I agree with most of this there in one point you should be aware of. Urea, often a component of yeast nutrient does produce a bit of cyanide in solution.

This should not normally be a problem at all becasue as long as you do not go everboard with it or addit late the yeast will absorb all of the urea and cyanide.

fermentation

appreciated.

Do you have a cite for this claim?

---The Mad Alchemist---

Email sent to the above address, unless clearly marked as wine or heraldry, will be deleted unread.

Well , my stuck peach wine is progressing although very slowly (SG 1.026 -->

1.024 = .002 per week). Is Peach Wine a little slow fermenting? If I hit it with more nutrients what happens if the nutrients are not all used by the yeast will they precipitate or will the impact the wine taste? Is there a way to filter out the excess sugar? thanks Sarge

fermentation

appreciated.

I made 10 gal's last year. It fermented fine. I added nutrient according to the suggested amount on the nutrient package.

Ray

Sarge, There are several reasons for slow or stuck fermentations. The temperature is too high or too low. The yeast lacks oxygen. The yeast lacks nitrogen. The yeast lacks vitamins and minerals. The yeast added was either dead or weak. Etc., etc.

If your fermentation is just slow, I would get the temperature to about 70 degree, add a complete yeast nutrient and splash the liquid to get a little air into the fermentation.

If the fermentation is stuck, I would do the above, and also make up a starter. More info at the bottom of the page here

Good luck. Lum Del Mar, California, USA

Thanks Lum, I gather you think .002 SG per week is not a good rate for fermementation? I was thinking of following your procedure to get a new starter batch of yeast going using ec118. Do you see any issues with using EC118 for this? Sarge

That rate is too slow for normal fermentation temperatures.

EC1118 is a good choice. That's what I would use.

Lum Del Mar, California, USA