Peach ciders

Was thinking about getting a peach cider going so it'll be ready by the dog days of summer. Using what i know about making apple cider, I thought, "I wonder how much peach juice is going to rape me for at the supermarket."

come to find out, they really dont make peach juice at all. Anyone make peach cider here and care to share their experiences? A friend of mine took 2 gallons of apple cider, did a freeze/thaw with fresh peaches, pureed them, then added them together with some pectic enzyme. His batch never kicked off and he was left with a bunch of green muck. Granted i'm a little more involved than "set it and forget it"... is peach cider usually made with a base juice of some kind like apple? I'd think that a water/puree'd peach/sugar batch would yield something similar.

Looking for ideas.

I was given a gallon of peach cider by an ex-gf, she had it for a couple years sitting at her place and never drank it. It was pasteurized (the cider ), so I decided to ferment it. It did quite well.

I used a bit of brown sugar and some hefeweizen yeast, Force carbonated it and it tasted lightly of peaches and a touch of banana. Not a bad drink at all.

MC

Misplaced_Canuck said:

I was given a gallon of peach cider by an ex-gf, she had it for a couple years sitting at her place and never drank it. It was pasteurized (the cider ), so I decided to ferment it. It did quite well.

I used a bit of brown sugar and some hefeweizen yeast, Force carbonated it and it tasted lightly of peaches and a touch of banana. Not a bad drink at all.

MC

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So I take it this was a full peach cider in a gallon jug without anything added (other fruit, sorbate etc). any idea where she got it? I'm having a tough time locating some for my needs. I might try two batches, one with sugar/water/fresh peaches and another with apple juice/fresh peaches.

I make Peach Pie with peach cider (similar to apple Pie the drink). I have to get peach cider from down south. I have some friend bring it up with them from Valdosta Georgia when they head this way. It is about $20/Gal. They have never indicated that it is hard to find in a peach growing region

If you think about it the pit takes up a lot of the peach, so it takes a whole lot more peaches to make a gallon of cider than it does apples.

Airplanedoc said:

If you think about it the pit takes up a lot of the peach, so it takes a whole lot more peaches to make a gallon of cider than it does apples.

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I think the large pit makes it a whole lot tougher to make than apple cider. You can't just run it through a grinder and press it like apples. There's a place near me that makes peach cider. I've had trouble losing peach flavor after it's fermented, so I wanted to make something sweeter to retain some of the flavor. I made a peach port a few months ago. Still in the carboy, but a recent sample tasted pretty damn good.

Circle M Fruit Farms Peach Cider:

The sweetest peaches are often too ripe and fragile for packing and shipping. Year after year we watched as peaches too ripe for market were wasted, which added up to about 10 percent of our peach crop. With the help of Rutgers Food Innovation Center and Rutgers Cooperative Extension, we were able to utilize these peaches to create a peach cider beverage in 2003. Customers are now able to taste the sweetest peaches that previously didn't make it to market.

divi2323 said:

So I take it this was a full peach cider in a gallon jug without anything added (other fruit, sorbate etc). any idea where she got it? I'm having a tough time locating some for my needs. I might try two batches, one with sugar/water/fresh peaches and another with apple juice/fresh peaches.

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Not sure where she got it. There are a lot of road-side peach stands in SC/NC/GA and when the peaches are in season, they all seem to have peach cider.

Edit: here

MC

why not use canned peaches?

I know plenty of wineries make peach wine 100% peach no apple or grapes. So it can be done and the wine is about the same price as apple wine. I was gonna try some cider with frozen peach slices added next.

MarkKF said:

I know plenty of wineries make peach wine 100% peach no apple or grapes. So it can be done and the wine is about the same price as apple wine. I was gonna try some cider with frozen peach slices added next.

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I guess the million dollar question here is where to source the peach nectar. Think I'm going to troll the aisles of my local grocery store tomorrow. If anything I'm hoping for peach frozen concentrate. Worst case is I buy 10lbs of peaches and mix the Apple juice in.

A friend of mine said that peach juice is popular in the winter time with the Hispanic community because peaches come in season in Latin countries. No idea how true/racist this really is but I might just hit the supermercado as well.

A quick search on walmart's site shows a couple of different brands of peach nectar. Hero brand says no artificial anything and no HFCS. Might be worth a shot. Fresh pressed peach cider, even here in a peach state, always seems to be priced for the yuppy market.

I just tried a 1 gallon batch, I mixed 4 cans apple juice concentrate with one can of canned peaches in their own juice. I chopped them up in the blender realy fine and I dumped them in. Its been just over a week and I just gave it a taste. It is extremely sour and isnt that great but im hoping it will get better with age. Also If you do chop up the peaches like that, leave lots of head space. I had peaches work their way through the air lock and it was starting to build a good bit of pressure in the botttle.

nickmell said:

I just tried a 1 gallon batch, I mixed 4 cans apple juice concentrate with one can of canned peaches in their own juice. I chopped them up in the blender realy fine and I dumped them in. Its been just over a week and I just gave it a taste. It is extremely sour and isnt that great but im hoping it will get better with age. Also If you do chop up the peaches like that, leave lots of head space. I had peaches work their way through the air lock and it was starting to build a good bit of pressure in the botttle.

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It's probably "dry" and not "sour". You'll need to back-sweeten to get some residual sweetness.

MC

I did plan on backsweetening my batch, that's not a problem.

I'll give Walmart a shot today too.

Misplaced_Canuck said:

It's probably "dry" and not "sour". You'll need to back-sweeten to get some residual sweetness.

MC

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Ive had dry cider before and It didnt taste like this, This batch has tasted like this since it was in the fermenter for about 4 days. It has a sour taste and has lost pretty much all peach and apple taste.

Pickled_Pepper said:

A quick search on walmart's site shows a couple of different brands of peach nectar. Hero brand says no artificial anything and no HFCS. Might be worth a shot. Fresh pressed peach cider, even here in a peach state, always seems to be priced for the yuppy market.

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Look at the label of the peach nectar before you buy it. Most that I've seen are only 20-30% juice with LOTS of added sugar. Peach cider might be pricey, but it's 100% peach juice. Some peach ciders do have sugar added, but nowhere near what's added to nectar.

Found some off brand called jumex. Label looked fine, only additive was for color. Thought hey this might work! Then read online about the 30% juice... damn it.

On the brighter side I picked up 2 quarts worth for $2.20. Gravity was in the 1.050 to 1.052 range. Going to ferment a half gallon and see what can happen. Hopefully won't have to pour it down the drain.

Walmart has organic stuff too but it was $28 a gallon and they don't carry ot in the store. Guess youre right, you get what you pay for with peach juice.

For the jumex I also thought maybe blending up frozen peaches to help give it more body in the end. Will have to see.

If you take a ride down 95 into NC, SC or Georgia you can find places selling peach cider at road side farmers markets and some gas stations. Who knows you could score! :fro:

Be careful what you buy from a roadside stand on 95 south...well at least Georgia anyway. I've seen those guys take apple cider and put peach, blueberry, strawberry, muscadine SYRUP in it. And not to mention preservatives.

When I was younger, we would drive across the North Georgia mountains and stop at all of the apple orchards. We called it the "Fried Pie Tour". NOONE up there even made their own fillings. Really? An apple orchard using "canned pie filling"? Yep, they admitted it was too much of a hassle making fried pies for the tourists. (Except for the sweet potato pies - those were homemade) It's like going to Orlando and catching Goofy on a smoke break. (sigh)

I'm not saying every orchard is doing it, but you definitely have to ask what's in it and make them look you in the eye when they tell you.

A few years ago, I was in a winery restaurant and saw that they were selling half gallon growlers of "Peach Cider....10% ABV" for $20. I asked about it and they said they had bought peach juice and added a little DME to boost ABV. They said they had guessed at the 10% ABV. A little odd for a winery to add DME and guess at ABV, but I bought one anyway. Opened it a few days later and knew something was wrong after one sip. It was sweet. Really sweet! Put a hydrometer in it and it was somewhere around 1.070. I'm pretty sure it hadn't fermented. I tried to salvage it by pitching yeast and adding nutrient with no luck. My best guess is that they had bought peach juice with sorbate, not realizing it wouldn't ferment. How could they not realize it hadn't fermented? Don't they own a hydrometer?

Hard to believe it, but this was a commercial winery! Pretty scary!

nickmell said:

Ive had dry cider before and It didnt taste like this, This batch has tasted like this since it was in the fermenter for about 4 days. It has a sour taste and has lost pretty much all peach and apple taste.

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Have you brewed a dry cider before? A buddy of mine brewed his bone dry and it was extremely tart and pinched the sides of your tongue. It stayed this was for a year. After that it really mellowed out and the apple flavor started to come back.

GinKings said:

...they said they had bought peach juice and added a little DME to boost ABV...

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That's just wrong on so many levels. A winery...using DME?

The official plan is this from Jack Keller's website: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques26.asp

doing a 1 gallon batch using the peach/white grape concentrate recipe at the bottom. Bought 5 lbs of peaches today but couldnt find any that are ripe enough. Any ideas on how to ripen these up a bit? Would it even matter? Was thinking of cutting these up and doing a freeze/thaw two or three times with pectic enzyme, then thawing and pressing and using a nylon bag in the primary.

Mixed it up tonight.

8 peaches cut into tiny bits. About 3lbs worth maybe a little more. 2lbs cane sugar. About a gallon of water. Then a frozen white grape juice concentrate. Boiled the water, mixes in the sugar to dissolve. Added peach "shavings" and brought back to a boil. Then reduced and simmered for 2 hours covered. Added pectic enzyme, k-meta, yeast nutrient, acid blend, and grape tannin.

Cooled it to 90degrees and pitched red star pasteur champagne yeast.

I was shocked that the gravity came out to 1.110! Added about a liter of water and brought it down to 1.082 or about 11% abv.

Will order up the jumex tomorrow and work on that when it gets in.

Shoot man, I don't think you are supposed to boil the fruit. That sets the pectin and it may not clear properly.

Added pectic enzyme, it will be fine. Didn't boil them, just a simmer to bring the flavor into the mash. I don't mind a cloudy cider if it does anyway

Ahh, sweet :rockin:

divi2323 said:

.....Then reduced and simmered for 2 hours covered. Added pectic enzyme, k-meta, yeast nutrient, acid blend, and grape tannin. Cooled it to 90degrees and pitched red star pasteur champagne yeast.

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You listed the pectic enzyme addition before the cooling step. Is that accurate? If so, I think you killed the enzyme. I would've added everything after it had cooled. Then again, I wouldn't have simmered the peaches either. Also, you should wait to pitch the yeast after adding the k-meta.

All was added after cooling except sugar. Sorry, edited post got out of order. The yeast has tolerance of sulfites. I know its common to wait to pitch but I've done it a dozen times. There is no harm. In fact the local home brew store has everyone put their meta in this way when you take their class.

Only problem ive ever had is when it was oversulfited I couldn't get the batch to start ferment until I made a starter.

I added 1 can of peaches in heavy syrup to a little less than 1 gallon of Motts apple juice to see how it would come out.
It started at 1.070 and I just took a reading and it sitting at 1.004...tastes and smells like rotten nastiness. Not sure that even backsweetening would work.
Here's how it sits today

Why don't you try adding peach extract or peach syrup to help with the flavor? Natures Flavors sells an organic Peach extract and organic Peach syrup. Type "peach" into the search box and you will get about 50 types of peach products that they offer. I bought an Organic Apple Extract that I add to my Cider to bump the apple flavor up a little bit. Just be careful because a little bit goes a long way! http://www.naturesflavors.com/index.php/

Found this ay Kroger's. It is discounted so I got it for$.99 each.

I tied to make peach cider from this a while back. Didn't come out right. I ended up buying fresh peaches, mashing them and adding sugar to make a peach wine. However, my jumex ran me $2 per box, so for half price I'm sure its worth giving it a try. I'll admit I didn't put as much time and effort into it as I should have, so it's highly likely it can be done.

Let me know how it turns out.

If you have canned peaches that you made yourself, could you eat them and use the syrup to back sweeten apple cider?

JohnsonsInCider said:

If you have canned peaches that you made yourself, could you eat them and use the syrup to back sweeten apple cider?

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It might give a canned peach taste. It happened to mine this spring. It wasn't bad, just not what I was going for. I added peach pie spices and it was delicious.

I've had really good results by blending fresh peaches (or peaches that were fresh frozen) with apple juice in my blender, then filling my fermenter with that. I use between 1 and 1.5 lbs of Peaches per gallon of intended end product. I don't see any reason to add additional sugar or canning syrup. Starting gravity is typically around 1.060, which will result in around 7.5% alcohol if fermented to full dryness. That is perfect, unless you are trying to make something more wine-like.

I believe that by fermenting on the actual blended fruit, I extract much more of the peach essence. The downfall of this is that I have to do 2 additional rackings compared to a typical cider batch in order to get rid of sediment and end up with a crystal-clear end product. 1st racking to get the liquid off of all the ground up fruit occurs after the initial fermentation period, once gravity has dropped to 1.010 or less. At that point I add more apple juice due to the volume loss from the fruit and allow fermentation to continue until complete. Rack again for final clearing, with a potential additional racking during this phase if needed, depending on how clarity is proceeding.

Jumex is available in most supermarkets in cities with a substantial Hispanic population. There’s also ‘Simply Peach’, that like all the other ‘Simply’ juice products, contains no preservatives.

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Hghlndr76 said:

Jumex is available in most supermarkets in cities with a substantial Hispanic population. There’s also ‘Simply Peach’, that like all the other ‘Simply’ juice products, contains no preservatives.

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I had great results using a gallon of Jumex to 4.5 gallons of store bought apple juice. I'm trying a second batch with 2 gallons of Jumex to 4 gallons of some juice.