Peaches in the secondary

I've got this simple Hefe I brew in the summer... My friend has tons of Peach Trees and we want to try and spike it with peaches. I was thinking of throwing a couple pounds of pealed peaches in the secondary.

Any thoughts or recommendations? is it to late?

No, I usually add my fruit to the secondary unless I'm making a lambic. I usually add about 10# fresh fruit that is macerated. Seeing as peaches have a more subtle taste, you may want to bump it up, depending upon how pronounced you want the peach taste. You may even want to leave the peels on to add to the flavor profile (not sure what it would do though, seeing as I've never made a peach fruit beer before). Just make sure they are rinsed and visibly clean before you add them.

I would recommend you peel them and pastuerize before adding to the beer.

Okay, I got back here a little late and forged ahead without any real advice. The pot with the macerated peaches weighed 7.5 lbs. I placed the pot on the stove and brought the temp up to 170 degrees very slowly .While the temperature was coming up I proceeded to mash the life out of the peaches. I held them at temp for 15 – 20 minutes. I placed the pot in an ice bath cause I didn’t want to kill any yeasties. I funneled the peaches into the secondary then racked the hefe on top. Gave it a vigorous shake and placed the airlock back in the carboy. It has been about 5 hours and its fermenting again.

I’ll post my findings here in about 10 days after I throw some Co2 at it.

I guess this leads to a more complex question now. Fruit sugars are fructose, right… Is fructose as fermentable as glucose?

coderbond said:

I guess this leads to a more complex question now. Fruit sugars are fructose, right… Is fructose as fermentable as glucose?

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You do realize there is a beverage called wine, right? Yes, it's fully fermentable.

OKay, it is possible to feel dumber than the question you ask...

Thanks for the response Sacc, Still shaking my head in wonder.

This may be useful to you, I just put up a posting of how to blanch the skins off the peaches. I just did this to 20# of peaches, that became 15 pounds after the skins and pits were gone. I will be adding all 15 pounds to 5G of berliner.

http://ryanpa.blogspot.com/2010/08/blanching-fruit-peaches.html

Have you tasted this yet? How'd it turn out?

Amazing! brewed it 4 times since posting. I can throw a recipe up if needed.

coderbond said:

Amazing! brewed it 4 times since posting. I can throw a recipe up if needed.

Click to expand...

That'd be great! Let us know what you would do differently, if anything, next time too.

I did a peach ale recently. Dont recall the quantities used off the top of my head. but I pureed some peaches and added some pectic enzyme and let them sit over night (to reduce pectic haze). Added a little to my mash and the rest to my boil. I also used my Ronco and dehydrated 4 large fresh peaches (sliced thin) I added half of these to my secondary and the other half to my keg. (done this before with dehydrated strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries with great success)

Here you go man, Added to the Recipe list

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/peach-hefe-202818/

Thanks for all your help fellas!