Can I make wine from raw peach juice?

[tinkoh]

Hello! Relatively new to homebrew, but extremely new to non-beer brewing.

I have behind me a hard apple cider about a week away from its first tasting. I was wondering if I could do the same thing I did here with other fruits. For example, I would like to simply take peaches, juice them, and ferment the juice. I don't know if this is a "cider," as it's not apples, or if it's a "wine," as it's just fermented juice. All the recipes I've come across so far ask you to boil peaches in water and then ferment that liquid to make peach wine, whereas in cider recipes they just throw yeast into raw apple juice. I guess I want to do something more resembling the latter.

Is what I want to do impractical? I legitimately can't find any recipes on it. Any commercial stuff labeled as "peach" I can find is just flavored malt liquor as well.

Apologies if this is the wrong subforum! From what I can tell wine is a more general term than cider so I thought this would be the better place.

 

[NinjaBear]

Short answer…

If you add sugar it will be more on the wine side.

Straight crushed juiced it’s more of a cider.

Though neither is fully accurate to what you’re making in the traditional sense.

But that’s the best part of homebrewing. You’re not limited to what is traditional.

Just make it.

 

[AkTom]

I’d not boil the juice. It will set the pectins.

 

[Mallerstang]

All the recipes I've come across so far ask you to boil peaches in water and then ferment that liquid to make peach wine

I've never boiled any of the fruit I've made wine with, including peaches. But there is a lot of conflicting information that comes up when you search online. The best resources I've found are this forum, the winemakingtalk forum, the eckraus website, and Jack Keller's website.

 

[tinkoh]

I've never boiled any of the fruit I've made wine with, including peaches. But there is a lot of conflicting information that comes up when you search online. The best resources I've found are this forum, the winemakingtalk forum, the eckraus website, and Jack Keller's website.

Jack Keller specifically puts his fruit in water and then ferments that liquid. From his website:
Chop the apples into small pieces and bring to simmer in 1 gallon water, holding simmer for 15 minutes. Strain liquid onto the sugar in V, adding the zest of the lemon and stirring well to blend. When nearly cool, add lemon juice and pectic enzyme, stir well, cover, and set in warm place for 24 hours. Add yeast and nutrient, again stir well, cover again, and set in warm place for an additional 24 hours. Strain again into secondary fermentation vessel and fit with airlock. Rack after 30 days, add chopped raisins, and allow to ferment under airlock for six months. Rack and bottle. Taste after six months, or allow one year to mature.

I find this interesting because an apple cider would be done totally differently, so there is some distinction between cider and wine regardless of fruit used. I guess I want to use fruits common to wines in a fermentation style more akin to ciders. Is that what you did when you worked with peaches?

I've never heard of Eckraus, but they seem to do something similar. For peach wine it looks like they just steep a bag in water and ferment it like that for a week, then let the peach-water sit. Ironically their apple wine recipe is identical to an apple cider recipe. It's all pretty confusing.

I guess what I really want is to ferment peach nectar, which is a term I only just found. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I do a 1 gal test batch. Juice the 5-6 lbs of peaches, add enough water to make 1.5 gal. Then add the sugar you need for whatever SG you are aiming for. I would go for 1.06 or so, that will give you a nice 7% ABV or so. If you can find some peach juice concentrate instead of sugar, that would up the abv and keep it really peachy. Or you might try some FAJC, it would do the same for the ABV, and keep a fruity taste.

 

[Mallerstang]

Is that what you did when you worked with peaches?

I've never heard of Eckraus, but they seem to do something similar. For peach wine it looks like they just steep a bag in water and ferment it like that for a week, then let the peach-water sit. Ironically their apple wine recipe is identical to an apple cider recipe. It's all pretty confusing.

I do put my fruit in a mesh bag, but it's not to steep it like tea - rather it's to make it easier to remove the fruit pulp after several days, while leaving behind the juice. Racking or siphoning are not effective or efficient ways to separate the pulp. When I take the bag out I squeeze it a lot, and the weight of the pulp is usually less than a quarter of the weight of the fruit I started with.

I don't have a fruit press, and I don't make wine with 100% fruit juice. There are those who do use all juice - hopefully someone will comment here. The ECKraus site has an article where they say that 100% fruit juice is often too acidic and strong-tasting, so most recipes call for water. I generally use a lot more fruit than Jack Keller does though - 4-5 lb per gallon. Using water and pectic enzyme, plus freezing the fruit, also make it easier to get the juice out when you don't have a fruit press.

 

[JimRausch]

For my 1G Peach wine, I cored and chopped 6lb of fresh peaches. Put that in a fermenter(in a BIAB bag) with 1/2 G boiling water and added 1 Camden tab. Next day, added pectinase. Following day added 1 lb honey and some sugar to get the OG up to 1.100. Fermented for 1 week, then removed the peach pulp and racked to a 1G jug with 1 Camden tab. I rack every 4-6 weeks or when the lees are more than 1/4inch, and usually bottle in 2-3 months.

 

[madscientist451]

I just put together 2 batches of peach wine last night.
Batch #1
First, I made a base mead by adding 5 lbs of honey to 2 gallons of water and added yeast nutrients using the amounts supplied on the Meadmakr website. I degassed twice a day, and kept the temp in the mid 60's using 71-B yeast. The mead fermented to dryness and then it sat there for a few weeks.
I then took 30 lbs of frozen yellow and white peaches, mashed them up, placed in a BIAB bag in a bucket and racked 2 + gallons of the mead onto the fruit. I also added pectic enzyme and more Fermaid O.
Its bubbling some now, its going to get stirred twice a day and will ferment in my chest freezer at about 60F.
Batch #2 Has 30 lbs mostly white peaches frozen and mashed, 3 campden tablets and pectic enzyme added. In the morning, I'm going to add 1/2 gallon mead dregs from the above mead, and (two) 1.6 L of Simply Peach juice drink, which is peach juice, water and sugar, and 2lbs of raw honey and some yeast nutrient. If I have time, I may pull the fruit bag and run the peaches thorough my juicer and put the remaining pulp back into the BIAB bag. OR, I may run the peach pulp through the juicer on day #3 of fermentation and then add the resulting juice back nut not the pulp.
My method is totally experimental and is a combination of several methods/recipes that I've found.

 

[Mallerstang]

I just put together 2 batches of peach wine last night.

Are these six-gallon batches you're making? Sounds fantastic!

 

[tinkoh]

The ECKraus site has an article where they say that 100% fruit juice is often too acidic and strong-tasting, so most recipes call for water.

This is something I was afraid of, so I might just take your advice. I also loved Gene's idea of peach juice concentrate.

Wow, a lot to think about. I'll probably just buy some more equipment and run a mini-batch of everything! Thanks for your help guys! Hopefully I'll have something to keep you posted on soon.

 

[NinjaBear]

If you’re using concentrate and want a sharp, dry, high alcohol wine…

Mix up one batch of juice per concentrate instructions.

Add yeast.

Every time bubbles slow, add another can of concentrate.

Repeat until new concentrate doesn’t reinvigorate fermentation.