brewing with peaches

Hi, I am relatively new to brewing. I brewed cherry fever stout years ago, and am thinking on brewing a peach beer. I have a liquid malt extract for a carona style beer that I think will go great with it. I am just wondering a couple things like about how much peach I will need for an 8 gal batch, also I remember when we brewed the cherry fever we had a primary fermentation and a secondary. Am I going to have to do the same ?

Two pounds per gallon is what I use for my peaches and cream ale.
Yes you are going to want to use a secondary.

There are fruit extracts available as well. It depends on how authentic you care about being. I made a Peach and Tea brew and used frozen peaches in my secondary but I wanted more peach flavor than I ended up with. I added some peach extract on bottling day and no one could tell the difference. The next time I make that recipe I intend to use more real peaches but I still have extract if I need it.

Apricots will help pull the peach flavor through. You can use extract or apricot puree. Use same amount as the peaches.

cool thanks, I thought I would but was not sure about it. only other thing is the fermenter I am thinking of using I would have to learn how to siphon or figure out another way of moving it, was thinking of sanitizing and aquarium pump and floating it to transfer

Dozer66 said:

cool thanks, I thought I would but was not sure about it. only other thing is the fermenter I am thinking of using I would have to learn how to siphon or figure out another way of moving it, was thinking of sanitizing and aquarium pump and floating it to transfer

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I would not recommend using an aquarium pump. It can oxidize your beer and also no true way to sanitize it 100%. I would pick up an auto-siphon http://www.barleynvine.com/5476.html#.UwJLj2JdWSo and use that or even a racking cane with hose.

glockspeed31 said:

I would not recommend using an aquarium pump. It can oxidize your beer and also no true way to sanitize it 100%. I would pick up an auto-siphon http://www.barleynvine.com/5476.html#.UwJLj2JdWSo and use that or even a racking cane with hose.

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Yeah, definitely pick up an auto siphon and make your life much easier.

If you do go with peach extract, DO NOT use any of the "brewing" extracts. They are almost universally craptastic.

Go grab a quality extract at your local wholefoods/organic store instead. They are about the same price as "brewing" extracts, and much much higher quality. I've never used peach myself, but have used vanilla and black currant extracts that came out very authentic compared to the artificial tasting brewer's extracts I used before I knew better