Help, fizzy peach drink?

I have a peach tree out back that has more peaches than i can preserve and make into wine. I'm looking for a recipe for a sparkling drink that would be real peachy and sweet and come in at about 5% ABV.

I' m thinking of using a beer yeast that would putter out at about 5 or 6% but i could sweeten it with splenda but would rather use sugar.

I' m gonna do 3 or 5 gallons depending on how many peaches are left.
Any suggestions ? Yeast? Camden? Any other chemicals? I make beer not wine.
Thanks in advance!

Use 100% peach juice, leave overnight with camden tabs and pectin enzyme. ferment to 5% and allow to clear, back sweeten to taste with something complementary like honey, carbonate, pasteurize and enjoy

I would use an ale yeast actually, but something like 1122 or d47 would also work. I did a cider with an ale yeast and it was fantastic

I have made a few peach wines but never one that low an ABV. However this would be my educated guess on the best way to accomplish this:

3 gallon batch

18lb peaches (frozen then thawed out)
2 lb sugar (1 lb to start and the other to back sweeten)
3tsp black tea (I like earl grey)
3 oz golden raisins
4.5 tsp pectic enzyme
3 tsp yeast nutrient (dap)
2 tsp yeast energizer (any tan colored powder nutrient)
3 Camden tablets
Yeast (Lalvin 71b)

First de-stone all your peaches and then place in the freezer. Once frozen thaw it out in a brew bucket. Add in loose leaf tea, raisins, Camden crushed up, 1 lb sugar and water up to 3 gallons. Mix well until sugar dissolved. Let this sit for 12 hours. Then add pectic enzyme. Pectic enzyme is almost required in fresh peach wines to get them clear at all. They have a lot of pectin that needs to be broken down. Let that sit another 12-24 hours. Now mix in the DAP and aerate the must well. Pitch the yeast. Don't think an ale yeast will putter out at 4%-6% ABV. Wines work differently than beer and many ale yeast will go to 9%-10% ABV. That is why I choose lalvin 71b. I think it makes great peach wines. After 24 hours pitch in 1tsp of yeast energizer and mix well. After another 24 hours pitch in the last tsp of yeast energizer and mix well. Make sure to stir/degas the must twice daily for the first 4-5 days. Let this ferment dry and then transfer to carboy and airlock. Rack every 30 days till crystal clear. Just keep topped up with water, hopefully your brew bucket had a bit more than 3 gallons and you can top up with that. Just keep any leftover from the first racking in a pop bottle in the fridge. Once the wine stops dropping lees then add in 1lb sugar, mix well and bottle. It should self carbonate in the bottle. Check one ever 12 hours and once at the desired carbonation level you need to bottle pasteurize. Here is a link to an awesome thread on stove top pasteurization.

stove top pasteurization

Then you should be all done. This should be about a 6% - 6.5% ABV wine and ending gravity should be close to 1.01 which should be plenty sweet IMO.

Thanks for the input guys! I think i'm gonna try both ways a 3 gallon batch of arpolis' and a 1 gallon batch of bluespark's. I don't have any wine chemicals so i'll have to make a trip to my lhbs tomorrow.

Edit... okay so after reading and going over a second time i realised i don't have a 3 gallon carboy. So i' ll have to make a 5 gallon batch ..oh darn more wine to drink

I' ll post how it all goes.

5 gallon recipe should be easy enough to convert from the above recipe. Basically:

6 lb peaches per gallon
1/3 lb sugar per gallon, once for primary and again to prime.
1oz raisins per gallon
1tsp tea per gallon
1 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme per gallon
1 tsp dap per gallon
Just round the energizer to 4 tsp 2 after the fist day of fermentation and 2 the next
And 1 Camden tablet per gallon.

Keep us informed on the results.

Yeah thats what i my figures look like.

Is there a certain temp i should ferment at for better results? I ferment in my basement and its pretty constant at 68 F.

I found out the hard way fermentation of ciders like temps closer to the low 60's. My cider tasted hot and barely drinkable. I used esb1968 yeast, and that was a bad choice for cider I found out. I now use Red Star Montrachet and cool temps, and my cider is very nice to drink now. I backs sweeten with apple juice concentrate, and then I pasteurize my ciders when the plastic "test" bottle gets hard due to carbonation. An hour in the dishwasher, and they are ready to lay down or drink. Lay down for a couple of months is the better choice

The dishwasher MindenMan? I guess if it is suppose to sanitize your dishes it should pasteurize the wine. I did not think about the plastic bottle trick though. And thats funny cuz i used it when i started brewing beer.

I don't know if i can get to the lower 60's. I'll put my thermometer on the floor and see if its cooler on the floor. The 68 is on a counter so i dont know if 3 feet will make a difference.

If you use lalvin 71b yeast, I believe it is very forgiving. 68*F should be fine. Now if it gets into the upper 70*F range then some bad stuff happens but lower 70 range is fine.

Hi guys,just reading your posts and have to ask a few questions cause I have a 5 gallon bucket with peaches brewing and having some problems.First why do most fruit wine recipes especially peach use raisins and or tea? In my wine I used wine yeast ,sugar and peaches nothing else and now after three weeks it tastes vinegary.Is the wine salvagable or do I have to dump it? what should I have done differently? The peaches I used were some I got from the local food store that were really soft and they were going to throw out.

The purpose of the tea and raisins or also commonly used is bananas, is to add body. Peach wines are often thin and weak tasting by them selfs unless you go overboard on the peaches. If you did not used Camden tablets up front then you may have had a lactobacillus infection from over ripe peaches sitting out too long. Don't give up yet. If it is not perfectly clear then wait till then and keep racking and topping up so there is no headspace. Once clear and it has aged a month or two give it another try.

ok will do, So I wait till its stop "working" then rack it to a carboy and add water? Can I add some raisins or bananas now? The wife has some frozen ripe bananas she was keeping for banana bread,can I use them?

You can add raisins or bananas now. That would work out just fine. Your looking at about 1lb of banana per gallon or 1/2 cup of chopped raisins per gallon.

Okay, so i finally got all the ingredients and time to do this. I'm going to start this tomorrow afternoon. I plan on putting the peaches in the blender and mixing everything in my 7.5 gallon bucket. I only have 20 lbs of peaches so i hope its enough for a 5 gallon batch.

The only thing that I'm concerned about is the stirring part. I don't think anyone would stear me wrong. I just need alittle reassurance.

Thought I'd better update this thread. After a week in the bucket I transfered this to a carboy. It was clearing out nice util I noticed that white furry $#*% growing on top after a week. I had to dump all 5 gallons. Don't know if it was a sanitation issue or what. Might try again next year.

Awwww you got to hate that. I had that happen once with a nice dark braggot. It was sad to dump the stuff. Mine was not mold though it was lactobacillus infection and totally soured it. Good luck with your next attempt.