Festina Peche - Looking for advice...

Hey guys,

I want to come up with something similar to dog fish head's festina peche but I honestly know little about brewing sour beer. I've scowered the internet for Berliner Weisse recipes and have some ideas. Id like this to be drinkable late summer so I'm thinking of passing on pitching lacto and instead using a combination of acid malt and lactic acid right before bottling. Heres my idea so far (5 gallon batch):

4.5 lbs german pilsner
3 lbs german wheat
.5 lb acid malt
1/2 oz centennial (mash hop)
US-05
3.5 lb peach puree (secondary)
2.5 oz lactic acid (right before bottling)

I've read some getting the temp up to just before a boil and I've heard others do a 10-15 min boil so I really don't even know what to do regarding a boil. Any advice you have for a newbie sour brewer would be awesome.

alexn1018 said:

I've read some getting the temp up to just before a boil and I've heard others do a 10-15 min boil so I really don't even know what to do regarding a boil. Any advice you have for a newbie sour brewer would be awesome.

Click to expand...

If you want to avoid pitching bugs (lacto) another option would be to do a sour mash. That will give you a much more complex, authentic flavor over pitching straight lactic acid. Simply adjust the sour mash ratio to how sour you want it, let it sit and keep it warm a day or two, and just boil it good and hard, then mash it with the remainder of your grain bill. It will smell BAD, but taste very very good with some time...

As for the 3.5lbs of peach puree, I can't really say... I know peach is a subtle flavor. I suppose if you juice enough fresh peaches, 3.5lbs may be adequate.

I'm about to make a Berliner Weisse with peach, as well. Also inspired by Festina Peche (my wife's fav beer).

I am going to do a sour mash a week ahead of time, and ferment it in my attic in a one gallon jug. Hopefully I get some good lactic acid from that. I plan to add that to my runnoff and boil it into my wort.

We went peach picking in Delaware 2 weeks ago, and once they were ripe I sanitized, pitted, cut and froze ~5 lbs of peaches. I'll thaw and add them to the secondary.

Any update on this? I am getting hassled to try to make something like this..

I had the DFH for the first time over the weekend. Actually it was my first Berliner Weisse. I thought it was great and in interested in trying to make a batch.

Looking forward to more info on this thread.

I haven't really gotten much new info on this. Once the fall set in I kinda put it on the back burner but I'd still like to give it a shot when spring rolls around. Back in August when I was looking I couldn't find much in the way of a clone recipe but there could be more out there now. I'd still love to get more input on how to go about this if anyone wants to add.

I was at the dogfish head brewery and I heard them say that they use champagne yeast... not sure if that helps you. My wife wants me to make one as well, but I am having no luck finding a clone recipe.

Forget the lactic acid and but some bugs in it

Below is my interpretation of the Festina Peche / Berliner Weisse. I took the basic recipe from a Berliner Weisse recipe already on here.

Style: Berliner Weisse
Type: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.12 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.034 SG
Estimated Color: 3.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 6.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.0 %
Boil Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
4 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)
3 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)
0.75 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - First Wort Hop
1.0 pkg Berliner Weisse Blend (White Labs #WLP630 Yeast)
1.0 pkg Lactobacillus Delbrueckii (Wyeast Labs #5335 Yeast)


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 7 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 9.38 quarts of water at 159.1 F 149.0 F 90 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (1.74gal, 3.18gal) of 168.0 F water

Notes:
Cool wort to 100 F and pitch Lactobacillus Delbrueckii (Wyeast #5335)
Wait 2 days and pitch Berliner Weisse Blend (While Labs #WLP630)
After 2 weeks, move to secondary fermentation and rack onto 3 lbs, 1 oz of peach puree.
Secondary fermentation for 6 months and then rack off peach puree into tertiary.
Tertiary for 2 weeks or until clear.
Fermentation temperature ~68 degrees
Bottle conditioned with carbonation level of 3.2 volumes of CO2 with table sugar

Tasting Notes:
As far as IBUs, SRM, mouth feel, and carbonation, both beers were similar. My version had a tart aroma. The peach aroma was slight but present, but the DFH version had a more present peach aroma. My version had a much more pronounced sourness and tartness and a lighter peach presence but still apparent. Again, DFH had less sourness and tartness but a more pronounced peach flavor. As far as complexity of flavor, I believe mine won out hands down. My wife agreed.

A link to my blog that has a picture of the DFH and my beer side-by-side:
http://sexyrunningbeast.blogspot.com/2013/06/berliner-weisse-my-interpretation-of.html

I wouldn't be surprised if they did not use any Lactobacillus in Peche at all. I don't taste or smell any lacto in the finished product which you do with a true Berliner. They bill it as a "neo- Berliner Weiss". My guess would be that they get the tartness from acidulated malt.