Peach Melomel Recipe Advice

[Stovetop535]

I recently picked up 18lbs of fresh peaches from friend and I am looking to make a peach melomel with them. I have 18lbs total, I could easily get more if I need to. Right now they are in the freezer, whole, until I free up a carboy.

I have three other meads going right now that had an initial gravity reading of 1.12 or higher, so I am wanting something with a lower abv and medium in sweetness, possibly with a hint of vanilla. I was thinking something along the lines of

-10lbs honey
-1/2 total amount of peaches in primary (frozen, thawed and sliced)
-Sulfites, pectic enzyme, and SNA through the 1/3 break with daily degassing
-Start 4 vanilla beans, split and scraped, soaking in vodka in separate container.
-Water to 5.5 gallons
-Online this gives me a predicted SG of 1.070 and around 9.5% when fermented dry.

Once primary is done rack and add remaining half of peaches and vanilla mix. When it has fermented dry stabilize and backsweeted to 1.010 (ish), age, clear and bottle.

-Will 18lbs total of peaches be enough? That 18lbs is with the pits

-Is there anyway to measure the abv change from the peaches? Or does it even make much of a difference?

-Is it worth my time/effort to split up the peach additions?

-Yeast selection, in my other batche I have used lavlin 1118 and d47. None of these batches are done yet so I am really flying blind on yeast. I am halfway through Schramms meadmaker book. Red Star Cote des Blanc, Lalvin 71b, Wyeast 3783 and 3273 are mentioned a few times and seem to fit the description for what I am going for. But suggestions would be appreciated.

-General thoughts on the vanilla bean addition? I love vanilla, the first mead I made was the Vanilla mead recipe I found in the recipe section. I tried it the other day (small hydro sample) and it is coming along nicely.

 

[loveofrose]

Hello Stovetop,

1. Yeast - I am a personal advocate of Wyeast 1388 due to it's ability to make delicious mead quickly (See the Brays One Month Mead "BOMM" post). It also has some peach notes by itself which would help. You would have to make a starter though. If you cannot make a starter, then I would suggest the following yeasts than don't blow off aromatics as much: KIV-1116 and DV10.

By the way, Schramms book is a wonderful start. You can get more up to date info at gotmead.com though.

2. Peaches - You must remove the pits! Pits are high in arsenic and can yield some nasty off flavors...not to mention the effects of arsenic. Sugars levels of peaches vary a lot and it will be tough to tell. You can use the calculator over at gotmead.com for an estimate.

Peaches have such a delicate flavor that it is best to add them in secondary. Even then I sometimes have to cheat with a little peach flavoring. Or add more peaches!

3. Vanilla beans. General consensus is that a little vanilla is good, too much vanilla is not good. After secondary with peaches is done, add your vanilla beans directly and taste every week. Bottle when it taste good to you.

 

[rowsdower44]

A lot of good info can be found here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/im-sold-must-make-mead-need-help-peach-recipe-122408/

 

[vNmd]

I have read that peaches (wine) will have more haze than other fruits. Anything special to do for using peaches in mead? I think this is my next batch.

 

[loveofrose]

You can add pectinase at any time to help clear pectin haze. I routinely add it with the peaches in secondary.

 

[Stovetop535]

Thanks for the input so far everyone.

I had not even considered using wyeast 1388 for this. I think I have one jar of that yeast washed from the belgian golden strong I made. I have a stir plate, so a starter is not a problem. If I went this route would it be best to make a starter from dme or honey? Or does it matter?

 

[loveofrose]

I generally use honey (1.04 ish) in the starter, but probably doesn't matter.