Hi all:
Some of you may remember that I started a 6 gallon peach wine back on August 17th. After racking several times, fining and filtering, and about 2.5 months of bulk aging, I finally bottled the peach yesterday. The hydrometer showed a 0.90, and because the recipe started out as a 1.100 does that mean I have about 15% ABV?
I poured the sample from the hydrometer into a glass and chilled it. It fermented to dryness and had a nice kick to it. I was surprised by how good it was, especially considering how much water I topped up with each time I racked. But, the wine tasted more like a regular white instead of having a real peach flavour. It also had a pleasant colour to it, and had legs as well.
I added some wine conditioner to semi-sweet and poured out 17 bottles. I then added a bit more conditioner and got another 13 bottles, this time a sweet. I only managed to fill the 30th bottle about 80% of the way, so I was forced to drink it that evening.
The smell was not that pleasant, but I believe this was due to the campden solution I rinsed the bottles in. The wine itself was fairly cloudy with some dregs, but this can be expected from the last bottle of the batch (the other bottles show no sign of this problem). The taste was great though, the peach flavour had returned with the sweetness!
I'm going to age the remaining bottles for a couple of months and start drinking them around March of next year. Assuming I can wait that long!!
I also did a 2nd racking of a mixed berry wine I started a few months ago. Again, I had posted about it on this forum. This one is only a gallon, and I've also had to throw away a lot of lees on both rackings. However, after racking I decided to taste the nasty dregs from the syphon hose and was blown away by how incredible it tasted. (So far, I have been able to top up using marbles instead of water so the taste is pure berry goodness.) I added some oak chips and really look forward to the finished product.
One thing is for sure...after all the backbreaking work sanitizing, syphoning, bottling, etc. I will =NEVER= make a 1 gallon batch again...it just isn't worth it. My 1 gallon is now exclusively for running top-up batches in parallel.
And I'll definitely be making another mixed berry again. Absolutely awesome!
Some of you may remember that I started a 6 gallon peach wine back on August 17th. After racking several times, fining and filtering, and about 2.5 months of bulk aging, I finally bottled the peach yesterday. The hydrometer showed a 0.90, and because the recipe started out as a 1.100 does that mean I have about 15% ABV?
I poured the sample from the hydrometer into a glass and chilled it. It fermented to dryness and had a nice kick to it. I was surprised by how good it was, especially considering how much water I topped up with each time I racked. But, the wine tasted more like a regular white instead of having a real peach flavour. It also had a pleasant colour to it, and had legs as well.
I added some wine conditioner to semi-sweet and poured out 17 bottles. I then added a bit more conditioner and got another 13 bottles, this time a sweet. I only managed to fill the 30th bottle about 80% of the way, so I was forced to drink it that evening.
The smell was not that pleasant, but I believe this was due to the campden solution I rinsed the bottles in. The wine itself was fairly cloudy with some dregs, but this can be expected from the last bottle of the batch (the other bottles show no sign of this problem). The taste was great though, the peach flavour had returned with the sweetness!I'm going to age the remaining bottles for a couple of months and start drinking them around March of next year. Assuming I can wait that long!!
I also did a 2nd racking of a mixed berry wine I started a few months ago. Again, I had posted about it on this forum. This one is only a gallon, and I've also had to throw away a lot of lees on both rackings. However, after racking I decided to taste the nasty dregs from the syphon hose and was blown away by how incredible it tasted. (So far, I have been able to top up using marbles instead of water so the taste is pure berry goodness.) I added some oak chips and really look forward to the finished product.
One thing is for sure...after all the backbreaking work sanitizing, syphoning, bottling, etc. I will =NEVER= make a 1 gallon batch again...it just isn't worth it. My 1 gallon is now exclusively for running top-up batches in parallel.
And I'll definitely be making another mixed berry again. Absolutely awesome!
