1985 Peach
June 2021 – I have wracked my brains on this one. I recall that it just would not ferment out, and while it was sweeter than I liked, it was better than the bone-dry one from the year before. Yeah, I wish I kept better notes.
Ingredients
| Fruit | 2-1/2# peaches |
| Water | 1 gallon |
| Sugar | 6 cups |
| Acid | 1 tsp citric acid |
| Yeast Nutrient | 1 tsp nutrient + 1 tsp energizer |
| Yeast | Red Star Epernay II |
Method
| Started | 06/03/1985 SG 1.100 |
| Strained | 06/06/1985 SG 1.030 |
| Racked | 06/23/1985 SG 0.989 |
| Racked | 07/09/1985 SG 0.988 |
| Bottled | 08/22/1985 SG — |
| Wine was murky, refused to clear. Didn’t understand what I was doing when I bottled. Unbottled the wine. Added pectic enzyme and a fining agent (can’t remember what, probably Sparkaloid). |
04/05/1986 SG — |
| Rebottled | 05/17/1986 SG — |
Notes
| Yield | 5 bottles |
| Alcohol | 15.2 % |
| Afterthoughts | This one didn’t come out good. It had a musty flavor that made me appreciate that I only had 5 bottles. Note that during this time period I drank anything I made that would go down and stay down. I opened bottles of this after opening 2 or 3 other bottles … and still had to pick non-discriminating drinkers. ROFL! |
| Note: At this time the only wine making book I had was by H E Bravery … hands down, the worst book on wine making ever written. In his opinion, fruit wines should be made with as little fruit as possible, to avoid any fruit character. Which begs the question: Why make a fruit wine? These days, when I make a fruit wine, I use 4 to 6 lbs of fruit per gallon of water. |