Peach Port help

I read a post the other day that mentioned peach port, and I knew that it was what I was doing next. This is what I have done so far.

1 6lb can of del monte peaches
water
nutrient
yeast
pectic enzy.
1.75 lb sugar (at first)

I have my peaches in a nylon bag in my must, made and added my starter, got some bubbling activity in my bucket so I know my yeast is going good.

What I need to know, is how much alcohol to add to achieve my abv goals for two gallons of port.... how to manage this sulfite smell I have come to learn comes from peaches... and what my final sg/fg alterations will be if I add sugar to my must until it peters out..

also any other help is welcomed.

The smell, what is it like? What yeast are you using, what is your room temp and must temp? Do you have airlock or lid snapped on primary(needs access to oxygen right now). Be sure to stir calmly for two minutes twice a day, gently squeeze fruit bag...squeeze too hard and may have clearing issues.

You used six pounds for two gallons?
Do you know when you plan on removing this fruit?

What I would recommend is you need to determine what final ACV you want this to be, just as a result of natural ferment. Do you plan to halt the ferment at a certain S.G. by cold shocking and fortifying vs ferment dry, backsweeten, stabilize and fortify?

What was the starting SG of your must? Usually you step feed, say at 1/3 sugar break to incrementally increase the available sufar for fermentation. Every cup of sugar per gallon will increase the SG by 0.020....so pretending your SG was 1.075, one gallon and you did two step feeds of one cup sugar your actual OG will be 1.115, if ferments dry this comes in a little over 15%. Some halt the ferment with a certain residual sugar, say 1.010, cold crash, rack, sorbate, k-meta and then fortify. If you plan to do this, make sure you add enough sugar to account for the residual you want to leave behind. Others ferment dry, sorbate/k-meta, backsweeten and fortify. Brandy, everclear and peach schnapps are nice...the schnapps bring the peach back.

I have a peach port from canned fruit that I inherited, aged 7 years, was still in carboy. Thought it would be perpetually cloudy, but it was haze, filtered and all is well...almost every note was faded away and could not get details other than all canned fruit, minimal water, step fed, cold crashed and fortified, plus sorbate/k-meta, brandy, everclear, schapps...and it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I think he told me it was around 21%, smooth, sweet, and you just keep sipping and when you stand...be careful.

Great link to determine how much to fortify with---- http://vinoenology.com/calculators/fortification/

Have fun...Sara

saramc said:

The smell, what is it like? What yeast are you using, what is your room temp and must temp? Do you have airlock or lid snapped on primary(needs access to oxygen right now). Be sure to stir calmly for two minutes twice a day, gently squeeze fruit bag...squeeze too hard and may have clearing issues.

You used six pounds for two gallons?
Do you know when you plan on removing this fruit?

What I would recommend is you need to determine what final ACV you want this to be, just as a result of natural ferment. Do you plan to halt the ferment at a certain S.G. by cold shocking and fortifying vs ferment dry, backsweeten, stabilize and fortify?

What was the starting SG of your must? Usually you step feed, say at 1/3 sugar break to incrementally increase the available sufar for fermentation. Every cup of sugar per gallon will increase the SG by 0.020....so pretending your SG was 1.075, one gallon and you did two step feeds of one cup sugar your actual OG will be 1.115, if ferments dry this comes in a little over 15%. Some halt the ferment with a certain residual sugar, say 1.010, cold crash, rack, sorbate, k-meta and then fortify. If you plan to do this, make sure you add enough sugar to account for the residual you want to leave behind. Others ferment dry, sorbate/k-meta, backsweeten and fortify. Brandy, everclear and peach schnapps are nice...the schnapps bring the peach back.

I have a peach port from canned fruit that I inherited, aged 7 years, was still in carboy. Thought it would be perpetually cloudy, but it was haze, filtered and all is well...almost every note was faded away and could not get details other than all canned fruit, minimal water, step fed, cold crashed and fortified, plus sorbate/k-meta, brandy, everclear, schapps...and it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I think he told me it was around 21%, smooth, sweet, and you just keep sipping and when you stand...be careful.

Great link to determine how much to fortify with---- http://vinoenology.com/calculators/fortification/

Have fun...Sara

Click to expand...

Good info Sara!

I did a blueberry port this summer. Used Lalvin EC-1118 yeast and enough sugar for 18% alcohol. Back sweetened with blueberry juice. So far it is very good can't wait to see how it ages.

alright... I had to take notes so that I dont forget anything.....

Let my preface the rest of this post by saying that I live about 50 Miles from my most local homebrew shop..... so I dont have the ability to pop out and get something I dont have without making it a big trip. Also, I do not have central heat/air in my place... so my must temps can vary.

that being said..

yes I used six pounds (contents of the can) I figured that I can continue to add peaches to secondaries for more flavor that wont be lost during fermentation....

I used champagne yeast (couldnt go to get port specific yeast) knowing that I wanted a dry fermentation, so that I can sweeten and flavor my port to my specific desires and not have to guess about if I have enough residuals...

The smell isnt really one of sulphur, though it has hints of it, the smell is really more of peach juice cut in water.... in the past this has not made the wine undrinkable, but its kind of embarrassing to tell someone to ignore a smell of something they are consuming.

my starting gravity was about 1.040. In a moment of distraction I didnt check how much sugar I had at home, so I could only add what I had on hand, knowing that I could add more. Id like my strength after fermentation to be about 15-17% and a finished product of around 20-25%. I just entered in these specs into the form on the link you sent, and it recommends over a gallon of fortification fluid... wow.

I plan on removing the fruit that I have in my must when I rack it out into two 1 gallon carboys. I have a wire spatula for removing things from a fryer that can be clean and sanatized, that i will use to strain out floating fruit, then rack my fluids, then take ( just thought of this ) a wiffle ball, or perhaps a ping pong ball placed on the tip of my racking tube to filter out fruit chunk. I dont know.

I started 'making' wines and meads back in march, with a 'success rate' of about 60% (ciders are kinda tough, and i tend to pick unfavorable fermentables) and it is a very fun hobby. I dont have ready access to someone with the knowledge that I desire, and the inability to tap someone on the shoulder to ask the very specific questions I may have, or to ask about how certain items and ingredients can be used.

RECAP

Does peach water always smell this way...

What can be added ( I have some ideas ) to help fortify the peach flavor after fermentation...

are my goals for strength too lofty for what I have started? and if so what changes can I make for future batches?

The yeast you chose is just fine, a strong and fast fermenter. Your thought of augmenting with additional fruit in secondary will definitely help pull more peach, and increase alc content. May consider body building, peach can be thin, now that I recall there was white grape concentrate in my batch. That peach odor is sometimes associated with low nutrients, could add steeped, blended golden raisins for body and nutrients.

You mention you just started winemaking in March...could it be you are consuming too early? I, and I am sure many others, typically age for a year or longer, of course some not so long. Mead specifically is rare to consume younger than one year. If you are picking odors from your wines upon serving, age out a bit longer, you may be surprised-pleasantly so. This peach, I would definitely try to wait nine months before trying. My two cents.
When fortifying just remember that brandy is a lower alc content, so many times a blend of brandy or even going all pure grain will acquire results without diluting too much, and the peach schnapps will take it over the top. But I do like the idea of brandy in there.

Sounds like you are on your way.

I don't mean to say you can't ferment dry and backsweeten, but port is traditonally made by adding the alcohol during fermentation. The ABV becomes higher than the yeast can tolerate, so fermentation stops and the port retains some sweetness from the residual sugar.

I normally use a wine yeast, such as Cotes des Blanc or 71-B, which have an alcohol tolerance around 14% ABV. My ports typically start around 1.090-1.100. I add the alcohol when fermentation is in the 1.040-1.055 range. I add enough alcohol to bring it to around 17% ABV, which halts fermentation and leaves some residual sugar.

Port usually uses grain alcohol or brandy, but it's not the kind of brandy that is normally availabe. It's 150+ proof, un-aged, clear brandy as it comes out of the still. The brandy in the liquor store is oak aged and water is added to get it down to 80 proof (40%). I would suggest using Everclear or grain alcohol, if you can get it. Using an 80 proof spirit, such as vodka or brandy, will work, but you need more than twice as much. The extra volume from the 80 proof spirit waters down your must, which dilutes the flavor. I would never use peach schnapps, since it is only about 25% ABV. You would need way too much for it to be practical.

I made a blueberry port this summer with a friend of mine. He tends to be kind of excessive, so we ended up with a blueberry port on steroids. We had picked over 200 lbs of blueberries. He took 100 lbs and ran them through his juicer. He then freeze concentrated the juice to 4 1/2 gallons. We added that to 30 lbs of blueberries and fermented and fortified as usual. No sugar was added. We now have about 6 gallons of 17% ABV blueberry port that was made from 130 lbs of blueberries!

Do you happen to know where I can get plain white grape concentrate? My local store only sell I paired with raspberry con.

Which leads to, what do you mean by steeped raisins? Like a literal raisin tea?

Additional question.


This is my first batch over 1 gallon... So when I rack out of my primary bucket into separate containers and these drop out lees... Can I rack them both into the same bucket and then split them back up again so that its two identical batches, or should I treat it as two separate gallons of port at that point?

alright, its day 7 of fermentation on my port... when I started my SG was 1.040... to this I added about .080 (2 pounds) in additional sugars, and my SG is now 1.018 with stepped nutrient additions. I am assuming that now I will want to splash rack the poo out of it to free all the gasses, and perhaps add some additional fruit/fruit juice to fortify my flavor?

I ask about flavor fortification because when I took a small sample out with my gravity reading, it was light in flavor, and sweet, but not as flavorful at this point as id like. If I where to add more solid peaches to this for flavor will my stabilizers arrest any further fermentation and just leave flavor? Should I add my fortification fluids now? should I perhaps wait until some gasses dissipate, or perhaps even wait until the wine is clear?

As I mentioned before, Im still fairly new to this, and this is the first of my batches that will need so much care and assistance.

So, to clarify...you started at 1.040, have added 0.080 per chaptalization for an updated O.G. of 1.120, currently down to 1.018?
There is nothing by way of stabilizers rhat you can add to stop the ferment...when we say stabilize we speak of k-meta plus sorbate.
Anything with fermentable sugar that you add while you still have active yeast cells will ferment. If your yeast are dead, anyrhing you add fruit/sugar wise would not ferment and would add flavor but if may also dilute depending on what you add.
Welch's and ?Old Orchard and others make a 100% white grape juice frozen concentrate, surely you have a store that carries this if in US? Or a white grape wine concentrate from supply store, ie online? Steeping raisin comment...essentially a raisin soup. Hydrate raisins with steaming water and then eirher add or blend and then add. What about white grape peach concentrate from freezer section?
You need to remember that this wine will need time to age and it will change. Typically the wine needs to clear to degas properly, a time thing. It is not something you rush. I would think you would be lucky at 90 days to have a clear and degassed wine, naturally.
Have you decided at what SG and when you plan to fortify? If you are hesitant about adding peach schnapps when fortifying I encourage bench trials....bench trials are always encouraged.

Question...are you having fun?

I am having a blast.

I have heard a wise man say that often it is the anticipation that makes a hobby great. I will have to double down my efforts to find a plain white grape concentrate, but I know I can find white raisins easy. How many raisins? a cup or two?

and for those of you reading through going.. "why, thats not a port he is describing, but better a sherry." yes I have come to discover that, simply a misnomer for a hodge-podge first attempt.

I am only concerned about the gases, because I know peaches to be very gassy, and lost a lot of good bottles to in-attention to gas levels. I am always improving the level of patience I allow my brews, and am looking forwards to pulling out a bottle in a few (maybe 5) years and saying that I made this, and its awesome.

as far as my fortifying SG im thinking around 1.015. I will still continue to allow it to ferment as far as I can (1.00/0.99), and am considering postponing the fortification until I am sure the flavor is vibrant enough for the aging. I will only be adding sliced fruit, so while it will add sugars, the base wine will be at or around my target abv that I wont be too concerned about continued fermentation as long as my flavor holds. which im sure it will.

as to when, Probably soon. I am between paychecks, so hopefully I will be able to pick up the correct size bottle of everclear pretty soon. I wasnt aware of the 151 proof bottle, which greatly reduces the amount of additional fluid i will need ( by about 2/3s gallon )

so, I will let it ferment another few days into the weekend, where I will recheck my SG and prepare to remove the first fruits and to rack. I will probably rack each gallon onto another pound of peaches, and fortify on my second racking.

anything Im missing?

Use a pound of raisins and chop them up. Then soak them overnight before adding to the wine.

This IS a blast, isn't it!?!?!?!?!

Good plans! In support of your port making, I will say that I know many who make their port by chaptalizing and fortifying at a specific residual sugar mark versus fermenting dry, backsweetening and fortifying. I really would not call this a sherry, as that requires a flor development. But if you think it turns out sherry-like, nothing wrong with that.

On gas issue....if you bulk age this for a minimum of a year I honestly do not anticipate gas issues, meaning dissolved CO2. As long as you do not have rotten egg odor you should be fine. Far too early to work on degassing anyway.

Using the golden raisins for body I would use 8-16 oz per gallon of wine. May want to tuck them into a straing bag for quick, easy removal (nylon kneehigh stocking comes in handy)

Here are my two 1 gallon carboys with peach wine. Still un fortified, fermented out until .997. At this point they still have a little head space, this is for adding sliced peaches to later.

Always amazed to see how the color can change. After I added the raisin soup, and more peaches, it went from the pictured pasty color to a vibrant peach color