strongarm

Recipes 

I have about 10 beers under my belt and 1 apple cider. I have a peach tree that gave me the idea to try a peach port...or maybe just a wine. I am highly confused on how the process goes for measuring/adjusting PH and acid levels. Can someone direct me to a simple site with instructions to direct me. I do have a PH tester but not sure how to test acid. Sorry for the newbie questions, but i'm short on time and unfortunatally can't comb threw too much info, looking for the best up front. Thanks.

novalou

Recipes 

I saw an apricot wine recipe on Jack Keller's website that called for 1-1/4 tsp acid blend per gallon or 2 juiced lemons per gallon. If your peaches are very sweet, this should be a good start, use less acid the more tart your fruit. You should end up with a PH between 3 to 4. There is a method to use your PH meter and sodium hydroxide to determine acid amount.

For your port style brew, use proportionally less acid for less water compared to wine.

GinKings

Recipes 

An acid test kit only costs about $10. If you have an accurate pH meter (not test strips) you can test acidity by just buying sodium hydroxide and a plastic syringe, but a kit is probably simpler. Acidity in your peaches will probably be low. You can raise acidity with lemon or lime juice, but it does add flavor as well. I usually use acid from the homebrew store. You can buy malic, tartaric, or citric acid. You can also get acid blend, which is a blend of all three. Malic is the main acid in peaches. I'd probably use acid blend and malic would be my second choice.

Peach flavors tend to ferment out, so I like the idea of a port because fermentation is stopped before all the sugars and flavors are gone. I made a peach port last year and it came out very well. I prefer port to have a higher level of acid than wine. Port is normally sweeter than wine and it's good to have higher acidity in order to balance the additional sugars.