Homemade Peach Wine
Peach wine is sweet and refreshing. Serve chilled for a delicious burst of summer flavor. See the section above for instructions on creating your own balanced peach and fruit wine by substituting a portion of the peaches with rhubarb, berries, plums or pears.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 3 litres 1x
- Category: Alcohol
- Method: Fermentation
- Cuisine: Traditional
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2.5 lbs of ripe peaches
- 14 cups of filtered water (chlorine-free)
- 2 lbs of sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp acid blend
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice (not bottled)
- 1 tsp yeast energizer
- 1 tsp pectic enzyme powder (optional)
- 1/4 tsp tannin (optional)
- 1 packet white wine yeast (LALVIN 71B-1122)
Instructions
- Follow the basic winemaking steps, including sanitation of ANYTHING that is going to touch the fruit. See the section above if you need more detailed instructions on the steps involved in making wine.
- Wash the peaches. Quarter them and remove the stones and any bad spots. However, you can leave the skins on.
- Put the peaches in a large pot and use a potato masher to coarsely mash the fruit.
- Bring all 14 cups of water to a boil, then pour the boiling water over the peaches. I often do this in batches, because pouring that much boiling water is difficult.
- Put a lid on the pot and stash it in a quiet corner of your house.
- After 24 hours, add the sugar, acid blend, lemon juice, yeast energizer, pectin enzyme powder, and tannin. Fully stir to mix in the ingredients.
- Follow the instructions on your yeast package (mine involves re-hydrating before use) and stir it in as well.
- Give everything another good stir one hour after adding the yeast to make sure it is well mixed. If you want to calculate the alcohol levels, remove some of the liquid at this point to measure the specific gravity.
- Put the lid back on the pot, and leave it somewhere warm to ferment for 4 days. Give the mixture a good stir once or twice a day.
- After the first 4 days of ferment, filter out the solids and move the liquid to your carboys. In general, it’s better to leave some of the liquid behind in the solids than to have solids in your carboys (see notes).
- Top the carboys with an airlock and leave them somewhere dark to ferment for 3 weeks.
- After 3 weeks, rack the wine into a clean jug for another round of fermentation.
- After 3 months the wine is ready for bottling. The bottled wine needs to age for at least 10 months to develop a nice mellow flavor. I’m often tempted to sample early, but it’s always a disappointment.Â
Notes
- If this is your first time making wine, see the section above for more information on each of the steps involved. Alternatively, try a simple recipe for fruit juice cider.
- I enjoy adding a second fruit to peach wine to round out the flavor. It will help to add depth to this mild fruit. See the section above for more information and suggested fruit combinations.
- I use an autosiphon to move the wine to my carboys. Then when there’s mostly just pulp in the bottom of the pot, I pour the liquid through a strainer to get out the rest of the liquid. This remaining liquid isn’t ideal for wine. Instead, I bottle it up for a quick cider-like beverage.