Peach Sparkling Wine - yeast issues?

[TheKench]

Hello all,

Made a 1-gallon tester batch of a sparkling peach wine recently. 4 litres of Welch's White Grape & Peach juice, 2 tins peaches (food processor to a pulp, boiled for 15 or so) and 400g sugar added to peach boil. Into a demijohn, cooled, and added half a sachet of Young's Champagne Yeast.

Primary ferment fine, racked it to another DJ after 2 weeks to remove some of the peach pulp. Fermented out after another week or so, added about 80g bottling sugar (as a syrup) and bottled.

A week later have had a little tester. Nowhere near as fizzy as I was hoping, and I am guessing this is because I lost a fair bit of yeast when I racked it. Taste is pretty much bang on where I wanted - dry without being ridiculous, and a bit of body and sweetness from the peach. With some extra fizz and carbonation it should be great.

My only issue is that it has a smell that can only be described as Yeasty. Not pleasant and something I'd like to eradicate. Can anyone think of a reason as to where this smell has come from? The only things I could think of would be that either it was a characteristic of the yeast (in which case I need an alternative!) or that I didn't let it ferment out fully...

I am thinking of putting on a second batch fairly soon, and I wondered if anyone had any top tips?

Thanks in advance!

 

[RobWalker]

Top tip - wait.

It's too early to judge the flavour and the carbonation. Beer takes 3-4 weeks to carbonate nicely, let alone wine which has a higher ABV and less to spur the yeast on.

Relax. :)

 

[TheKench]

Cheers Rob - I had a feeling that might be the answer! I remember a while ago that someone mentioned to me that sparkling wines are best drunk young... I think I'll keep this one for a while and see what happens. Do you reckon time will help the yeasty smell too?

 

[RobWalker]

Yeah undoubtebly. It's what brewers call "green" - people can be bothered to wait for different levels of maturity, but you are probably looking at Acetaldehyde flavour, which resembles green apples. It also probably has a hot alcohol smell and taste at the moment, whereas a good matured wine will taste less of alcohol and more of fruit. Check here for some good info -

http://morebeer.com/content/homebrew-off-flavors

so yes, the flavour should wear off in time :)

Young, for wines, means 3-6 months. But if it's palatable, feel free to drink it - I like to keep a bottle or two behind with my batches and put it away for years to come.

 

[TheKench]

Perfect! Time is the way forward.

Glancing at the recipe, anything you would alter for the next attempt?

 

[alanywiseman.]

Doing my first sparkling wine at the moment but have you used 80g sugar for a 1 gallon batch?

It seems a lot to me. I was going to bottle in beer bottles going for about 7g per bottle as I am going to try and disgorge it as well.

 

[TheKench]

Yeah. I am beginning to think I might have overdone it.. we shall see when the garage starts exploding. Storing them out of the danger zone!

 

[klaus]

To get a really good sparkling wine I suggest you let ferment out for a week or two and then bottle using champagne bottles, with plastic cork and wire cage - there's plenty of documentation around on the process. It does provide a much better product, especially if left for many months.

 

[alanywiseman.]

To get a really good sparkling wine I suggest you let ferment out for a week or two and then bottle using champagne bottles, with plastic cork and wire cage - there's plenty of documentation around on the process. It does provide a much better product, especially if left for many months.

What's your priming rate? Does the yeast stay solid in the bottle or kick up when opened?