Peach Wheat Suggestions?

jrhammonds · 07-08-2008, 03:37 PM

So, I am making a peach wheat. As of now, I brewed one of my favorite american wheat recipes--and primary fermentation is just about finished. I plan on adding 10lbs of fresh white peaches that I obtained from the local farmer's market this weekend. I hope to freeze them--then blanche them by straining boiling water over them to get the peel off. Then I will pit them, quarter them, and run them through my juicer--adding all of the puree to secondary vessel and racking the beer on top of them. I was completely okay with this plan--but the more I read, I hear about people saying that 10lbs. isn't enough to detect peach flavor. I have roughly 5 gallons of wheat beer and thought 10lbs. would suffice. Does anyone have any suggestions and/or want to affirm that I am on the right track? Thanks!

**cubbies** · 07-08-2008, 04:19 PM

Wowzers, not sure who you talked to. 10lbs would be peach juice, seriously. I am sure it would taste good, but it would not taste like beer at all. I am not familiar with "white peaches", but if they are anything like a normal peach, I would tell you to use 5lbs, maybe less. My Peach Wheat got rave reviews, and I used 5lbs. Using 5lbs the beer needed over two weeks for the peach flavor to mellow out. I plan on making it again this year and I plan on using 4 lbs of peaches.

jrhammonds · 07-08-2008, 08:09 PM

Okay--thanks for the heads up! Another quick question: heating the peaches. Some mention bringing the peach halves up to 160F for a while for pasteurization--others mention baking them in the oven for a while. Either way my question is two fold: (a) Is pastuerization necessary here; and (b) would baking them be advantageous for flavor development (e.g., changing the sugar molecules to make more unfermentable--as similar to dark belgian candy sugar or even crystal malts)?

**cubbies** · 07-09-2008, 02:56 PM

Well, I have no experience baking them, but I would imagine that it would add a different flavor.

You definitely need to heat them someway though, as there are plenty of bugs in fruit that would love to infect your beer. What I do is add the frozen peaches into a pot with just a little bit of water. Bring that mixture up to about 160 (dont go higher than this) and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Then cool the peaches and add them to the secondary and rack your beer on top.

aekdbbop · 07-09-2008, 02:58 PM

is there any need to heat them if you use a frozen bag from the store?

The Blow Leprechaun · 07-09-2008, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aekdbbop

is there any need to heat them if you use a frozen bag from the store?

They're probably pasteurized before being bagged.

aekdbbop · 07-09-2008, 03:20 PM

thats what i thought.. just wanted to dubbel Czech

**cubbies** · 07-09-2008, 03:25 PM

I dont know about necessary, but that is what I use and I pasteurize them. It is one of those things that it takes 10 minutes. If I have to spend 10 minutes to protect something I spent weeks making, I will. But all in all, you would probably be safe.

aekdbbop · 07-09-2008, 03:34 PM

yeah, luckily if it goes bad, its only 1/2 gal.... kinda an experiment.