fruit beer issues

I'm having a couple of problems with the peach cream ale I'm working on. I have a solution to both of them and I just wanted to see what everyone thinks about my remedy.

The first issue, and bigger issue, is that I think I started out with a beer with too high an ABV for the amount of fruit I put in. Before adding the fruit to the secondary, I had approx. 4.6% ABV. I added 7lbs of peaches to the secondary. If I get 8 to 10 gravity points out of the fruit sugar, I'll end up with 11.5% to 12% ABV. Because I soaked the peaches for 24 hours, I'm guessing I'll be closer to 11.5%. (Of course I was an idiot and did this calculation after adding the fruit, not before).

Anyway, I'm thinking the 11.5% is probably too much for the Safale us-56 I used. So I'm considering pitching a Belgian Ale or champaign yeast to help finish the fermentation.

The second issue is that the nights have started freezing pretty good at my house and the temperature of my cellar has dropped from 66F when I started fermentation in the primary to 58F (a total of about 3.5 weeks have passed so far, 1.5 weeks in the primary and 2 weeks in the secondary).

I had decent fermentation in the secondary for 2 days (about 1 bubble every 3 seconds). Then the temperature dropped to 62F and the fermentation slowed to about 1 bubble every 2 minutes. That lasted until the temp dropped to 60F, at which point all bubbling stopped.

I haven't taken I gravity reading yet. I'm assuming that either the drop in temperature or the increase in ABV or a combination of both have stalled the fermentation.

Tomorrow, I'm buying a brew belt and Wyeast Belgain Ale yeast. I also have a pack of Red Star Champaign yeast, but I'm not really trusting of the Red Star brand. Should I try the brew belt first to see if I can get fermentation to restart with the Safale yeast. Or should I go ahead and add the Belgain Ale yeast too?

I think taking a gravity reading before you do anything is the most important thing at this point. I don't understand the math you used to get that ABV, could you explain it?

I think it's probably done.

I have figured it two ways and get more or less the same ABV. The underlying assumption, of course, is how much sugar I'm going to get out of the fruit.

Primary O.G. = 1.048 (6.1%)
Primary F.G. = 1.012 (1.5%)

From this I get an ABV = 4.6%

Then I added 7 lbs of fruit to the secondary. If I assume 8 gravity points / lb, that gives me an additional 56 gravity points. Therefore:

Est. Secondary O.G. = 1.070 (9.2%)
Est. Secondary F.G. = 1.017 (2.2%)
ABV = 7%

If I add them up, I get 11.6%. Now, I thought maybe I was doing the calculation wrong so I double checked by adding the 56 gravitiy points to the O.G. of the primary. I don't remember what it calculated out as, but it was higher than 11.6%.

okay, I found my balling chart. If I treat it like its added to the primary:

est. o.g. = 1.104 (13.9%)
est. f.g. = 1.026 (3.2%)
abv = 11.7%

I got my daughter to take a nap and decided to take a quick reading.

I prostrate myself before you Cheyco. I got a f.g. of 1.010. I thought the fruit would take longer than two weeks to ferment. Although, I'm not sure why I'm getting 1.010. I must have messed up one of the other readings.

So, I'll be racking off the fruit tomorrow night instead of pitching. Yeah! One step closer to drinking.

By the way, can I just say beer is a wonderful thing. Its a nice auburn color and wonderful flavor: peaches with just a hint of hops. I wouldn't mind drinking this stuff straight out of the carboy.

Thanks.

feedthebear said:

Then I added 7 lbs of fruit to the secondary. If I assume 8 gravity points / lb, that gives me an additional 56 gravity points. Therefore:

Click to expand...

You need to expect 8 gravity points per pound per gallon. Therefore, (8x7)/5 gallons (assuming you have a 5gal batch) = 11

So you will add 11 gravity points to your OG. Giving you a total ABV of 6.46%.

Brew on!

Just remember...a brew belt is NOT for carboys. I don't want to hear any bad reports from you about how your carboy burst all over the garage.

How about moving the fermenter closer to your water heater? It always works for me. Place a therm on top of the container to regulate how far/close you need to place it from the heat source.

Thanks Cheyco, that makes more sense.

HB99, I'm glad you warned me about using it on a carboy, because that was the plan. I was going to dial it down with a rheostat. I'm just trying to raise the temp a couple degrees.

Is it thermals shock and cracking?

I'm still going to get it. I'm sure I'll have plenty of other uses for it.

My celler is a room that was built under my front poarch. Its great for brewing because no light can get into it and the temperature changes very slowly.

The cat's litter box is not far from the water heater. I don't want to try the piss sanitizer I've read about, especially with cat piss.

Most of the house has a problem with light. The house was built in the 30's and it was made to have tons of natural light. Which is great for the electric bill. But bad for brewing. I may be able to pull a drawer out of a cupboard in the basement bathroom. Nobody uses that bathroom anyway. The the temp in that room is closer to 68F.