Wash all your tools and sterilize to your desired level of cleanliness. Maintain this level of cleanliness throughout the process.

When the 24 hours is up (or earlier if the fruit has defrosted), combine about a cup of water with the yeast in a small bowl, and set aside to wake up for 10 minutes.

Add the acid blend or lemon juice, and tannin or black tea to the peach mixture. Add in enough water to bring the total volume of the mixture to about 1 1/3 gallons—no need to be perfectly accurate.

Place the fermenter in a spot out of direct light, but where you can keep an eye on it. Agitate the mixture well at least once per day by stirring or swirling.

The fermentation should start within 1-3 days. Continue to stir or swirl thoroughly throughout the entire primary fermentation stage.

When the bubbles slow down considerably in the airlock (usually around the 7- to 10-day mark for us with this wine, but it’ll vary based on the heat of your house), your primary fermentation is done.

Using a large ladle, scoop out the peach pieces and pour them through the sieve and funnel.

Press the peach pieces into the sieve to get as much of the early wine out as possible.

When the sieve fills up, dump the spent must into the compost, and replace. Keep repeating until the majority of the fruit is out of the wine.

Pour the remainder of the wine through the sieve and funnel.

You want the wine to come to the bottom of the neck of the carboy. If you have too much, you can pour yourself a glass of not-yet-finished-but-still-delicious wine. If you have too little, you can top it off with more non-chlorinated water.

Fit the carboy with an airlock. All this agitation will restart any sluggish fermentation quite actively, so I recommend placing the carboy in a place where you can keep an eye on it easily (but still out of direct sunlight).

Once you know it’s not going to geyser wine everywhere, you can then move the carboy to a dark, out-of-the-way spot to do the longer secondary fermentation.

Secondary fermentation is complete when the wine is “still,” meaning there is no carbonation in the wine, no bubbling in the airlock, and the wine has cleared. This can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to months, depending on a number of factors. Do not bottle until the wine is still.

Fit the bottling container spigot with a bottle filler, if using.

Fill clean, sanitized bottles using the bottle filler or just the spigot.

Cap, cork, or close the top of the bottles. Label the bottles.

Store in a cool dark spot (if using corks, turn the bottles on their sides to keep the corks wet) and age for at least 30 days, but preferably 6-12 months for the best flavor.