How should it taste after primary ferment?

[Beckerkorn]

Hello all, I'm completely new to winemaking and I started my first batch of peach wine a week ago.

The recipe I used said to ferment it in a plastic bucket for seven days, then transfer to a carboy.

Well, I siphoned it to my carboy today, but when I took a little taste it was very boozy. Like a super-strong sake.

Is this normal? What is the ideal way that fruit wine should taste after primary ferment? Any visual or olfactory clues they will tell me when the time is right to move it from a bucket to a carboy? I'm worried I may have waited too long.

The ingredients I used:
*3 lb peaches (squeezed in a nylon sack)
*1 lb sugar (white refined)
*1/2 gal water (this ended up being not enough to make a gallon and I had to top up my carboy)
*1/2 tsp pectic acid
*1/2 c orange juice
*1 T yeast (Lalvin 1122) - this came to about 1 2/3 packets and it was "awakened" in the OJ before being added to the must

Thanks in advance!!

 

[MadCnty]

IF you used a high fusal yeast you will get a high alcohol % which = wine Champlain (dry)... I am still picking yeast for flavor atm Its all trial and error, there is no science...

 

[A_McG]

There is some science, get a hydrometer. Without knowing the specific gravity before and after fermentation, you can't know what the alcohol content is.

Wine will always taste 'boozy' when coming from the primary. It takes time for the alcohol to mellow and balance out in flavor. Just keep an airlock on it and let it age, bottle in a few months. My last batch took 12 months to get good. Time is wines best friend.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Beckerkorn - and welcome. There is a tool that is really inexpensive and useful and it will tell you precisely when to transfer (rack) wine from a primary to a secondary (although that is not always a critical issue) and when to bottle (or rather , when it is not ready to bottle) and that tool, as A_McG noted , is an hydrometer. When the sugar has been fermented then the density of the must (the juice) drops to a density very similar to water - 1.000. You want to rack or transfer the liquid when gravity reaches about 1.005.

When a wine tastes "hot" or boozy that is often a sign that you have made a wine that has too much alcohol in it to balance the flavor of the fruit and the perceived sweetness (it may be too "dry"). Wine making is not simply about converting sugar into alcohol (ethanol). It's about creating or finding balance. Moreover, yeast when stressed with heat, for example, and stressed with a lack of nutrients, will produce fusel alcohols - and those are more complex than ethanol and taste sharp.

 

[Beckerkorn]

Thanks for the information everyone!! I will need to buy a hydrometer next time I'm at the home brew store.

 

[voltron]

Hello all, I'm completely new to winemaking and I started my first batch of peach wine a week ago.

The recipe I used said to ferment it in a plastic bucket for seven

Well, I siphoned it to my carboy today, but when I took a little taste it was very boozy. Like a super-strong sake.

Is this normal? What is the ideal way that fruit wine should taste after primary ferment? Any visual or olfactory clues they will tell me when the time is right to move it from a bucket to a carboy? I'm worried I may have waited too long.

The ingredients I used:
*3 lb peaches (squeezed in a nylon sack)
*1 lb sugar (white refined)
*1/2 gal water (this ended up being not enough to make a gallon and I had to top up my carboy)
*1/2 tsp pectic acid
*1/2 c orange juice
*1 T yeast (Lalvin 1122) - this came to about 1 2/3 packets and it was "awakened" in the OJ before being added to the must

Thanks in advance!!

by boozy i suspect you mean dry?

 

[voltron]

Hello all, I'm completely new to winemaking and I started my first batch of peach wine a week ago.

The recipe I used said to ferment it in a plastic bucket for seven days, then transfer to a carboy.

Well, I siphoned it to my carboy today, but when I took a little taste it was very boozy. Like a super-strong sake.

Is this normal? What is the ideal way that fruit wine should taste after primary ferment? Any visual or olfactory clues they will tell me when the time is right to move it from a bucket to a carboy? I'm worried I may have waited too long.

The ingredients I used:
*3 lb peaches (squeezed in a nylon sack)
*1 lb sugar (white refined)
*1/2 gal water (this ended up being not enough to make a gallon and I had to top up my carboy)
*1/2 tsp pectic acid
*1/2 c orange juice
*1 T yeast (Lalvin 1122) - this came to about 1 2/3 packets and it was "awakened" in the OJ before being added to the must

Thanks in advance!!

This is common for a few reason, a pound of sugar is about two cups for the gallon, then add the sugar iin the oj and the peaches and you yeast will have a feast so you have probabky spproached the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. Also you used 1 2/3 packets of yeast, thats a lot of yeast for one gaallon, so you got to dryness faster than usual bc you have more yeast and this may be the biggest reason for that bozzy taste. for one gallon a fifth of a packet is what you need so when you rack in a week it is more semi dry rather than dry. The good news is it is sbetter to be dry than too sweet. because it is easier to sweeten than to unsweeten.

I guess what i am not sure is what abv where you looking for also did you want a sweet wine or a dry wine, did you want hints of peach aroma?

 

[Bourniplus]

Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew

Indeed, 1 2/3 packets of yeast sounds like a lot, but I don't think it'll really matter. Half a packet would probably be more than enough.

It's normal to taste very alcoholic right after the primary. IMO, if you want to make something that you can enjoy sooner, you could experiment with cutting down on the amount of sugar that you add. (=less alcohol)