Need help with a wine cooler recipe

[tinkoh]

Hi everybody, I've been trying to make a "hard peach iced tea" for some time now. Basically I wanted Twisted Tea with added fruit flavor, at this point it can't be peach because they're not sold at my local market. I have a few questions.

Basically I had several bad trials. What I want to try now is ferment DME and honey, carbon filter, and backsweeten with home-made simple syrup infused with whatever fruit.

1) Will carbon filtering "oxidize" the brew? I've heard filtering beer can leave you with cardboard, but what I have here isn't technically beer. Someone told me Twisted Tea does this so I'm not sure.

2) Should I try starting with a high-gravity wort and then mixing with iced tea? Is there any major consequence of just adding in too much DME/honey in primary and then diluting with water to a desired ABV?

3) Can I add fruit in the end of the boil for aroma? I've been boilng my DME to sterilize (though there are no hops). Every trial thus far tastes all right (well, not every trial) but smells more like malt than fruit. Trials adding fruit into primary/secondary did not go great either. I've read boiling fruit can lead to bad things.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sixt3]

Have a look thru this thread if you have not already found it ..
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/sparkling-hard-water-recipe.632001/

 

[tinkoh]

Have a look thru this thread if you have not already found it ..
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/sparkling-hard-water-recipe.632001/

I haven't seen that thread, it's interesting. Fermenting sugar water is something I actually tried in an early trial (though I added fruit syrup as well) and it didn't come out right. Just tasted weird, and granted that could have been my fault, but it's not a direction I'd like to revisit for now.

I still think I'm going to ferment malt and filter, someone in that thread said in the US they effectively filter until it has no flavor. As for starting at too high a gravity and diluting with iced tea, I'm still not sure. I dont see why itd come out wrong but I've been wrong more than I've been right.

I really ask because these trials are getting expensive (about $15 a gallon) and I want to get it right.