Fruit Beer Peach Wheat

Primary: 5 days @ 65
Secondary: At least 7 days @ 65
When racking from secondary to keg allow some (LITTLE) sediment to transfer. After bottling, rouse yeast to bring out best flavor when pouring.


So I wanted a Peach wheat type beer because I can't help but think its tastey, but I didn't want a weak wheat beer. So more fermentables are required and why not let fly a little honey to the wheat beer recipe and then rack on top of peach puree for the homerun? ... right?

This beer took 1st place for fruit beer at the 26th annual KC Biermeisters competition.

Ingrediants:
Alexander's Wheat extract 7lbs
Honey (Not sure the style, gift from Mom) 2lbs
1 can (3lbs) Oregon Peach Puree

HOPS: 1.5 oz tettnanger boiling (3.4 AAU) for 45 & .5 oz Kent Goldings aroma (~5AAU) for the last 5 mins

Misc:
1/2 tsp of Irish Moss for last 20 minutes of boil.


Boil your water, pour in extracts (including honey, and yes I know it doesn't add honey flavor when you boil it) and follow hops schedule. My OG turned out low because my dumb self forgot to stir up the mix before drawing the sample, capping with the airlock, and moving it downstairs only to come back and .. "DOH!" but according to promash its OG should be about 1.069. I plan to rack into secondary after day 5 and add the peach puree and let sit for a few weeks before racking to a keg.

EDIT:
After 10 days I racked to secondary with a gravity of 1.010 on top of the peach puree. The sample I drew tasted just fine, but I did notice the secondary rack on top of the puree started another 'bout of fermentation so heads up!

Can't wait for this to come out of secondary to the keg so I can sample into the final step!

EDIT: Final Results and Tasting

After 7 days when the second fermentation subsided I racked off of the puree and into the keg. I force carbed by doing 12 PSI and shaking the keg while counting to 100. Upped the pressure to 30 PSI, gave the keg a quick few shakes and then let sit for 2 days before dialing the pressure back down to 12 PSI for serving.

This beer turned out very well rounded and balanced. The Peach flavor came out very well, and the added sugars from the honey really punched in the ABV. My only complaint has been that I didn't bring enough and to make more.

I've currently got a beer similar to this that I just put into the secondary along with 3lbs of the Oregon peach puree and noticed some fermentation starting up again. So far so good though as it hasn't really gotten that large. Figure I'll keep it in there a week and then bottle it topping it off with 2 oz. of extract in the bucket just to give it that extra bump of flavor. Let me know how yours goes.

Some recipes I've seen have 6 lbs. of the puree, would that be too much? According to Mosher in Radical Brew, peaches don't come through fermentation that well.

We used 15 lbs frozen peaches for a 5 gallon batch. I know, this is a ton. Needless to say, the peach taste is very prevalent. Its very tasty.

CADragon said:

Some recipes I've seen have 6 lbs. of the puree, would that be too much? According to Mosher in Radical Brew, peaches don't come through fermentation that well.

Click to expand...

3lbs leaves it just enough that you don't forget you're drinking a beer, and I use it in SECONDARY, not primary.


This recipe started with the idea that I want a great wheat beer first and didn't want a slap in the face peach flavor. This is not meant to be a full on peach chick beer. It's just subtle enough to keep you interested sip after sip.


Wins praises from the wife as well as my hardcore beer buddies.

Fermentation started very slow, about five days after pitch. then has been going for many days. had to add a 1 1/2 pound of peaches because they where going bad. should I add 3more pounds of peaches after fermentation stops? Was planning to bottle this beer. what do you think.

kegged this beer and it turned out great , its very high in alc. you can feel it after one glass. I think i will brew again and drop down to 6lbs of wheat LME. I used orange blossom honey. Mybe I should drop 1lb of honey? any thoughts?

Yes, it has lots of alcohol :cross:


I would say your best bet to drop the alcohol and keep the full body flavor is just lose the honey altogether. After churning out a few batches of this stuff I've found that losing the honey doesn't impact much but the alcohol.


Glad you are enjoying it! Sorry it took me a few days/months to get back to this thread.

gravity man said:

Fermentation started very slow, about five days after pitch. then has been going for many days. had to add a 1 1/2 pound of peaches because they where going bad. should I add 3more pounds of peaches after fermentation stops? Was planning to bottle this beer. what do you think.

Click to expand...

I can see this is an afterthough now but just to be thorough you should make sure your yeast is nice and healthy before pitching into this high gravity beer. A starter is really a good idea but ultimately you can get away with a smack pack, just make sure your temps are solid and aerate the hell out of the wort. I tilt the carboy (better bottle) and just shake the thing in a circular motion to stir it up before pitching.

3lbs of peaches is generally all that's required, I've added 2 cans and it did bring out more flavor, but it felt like too much. I want a beer first, fruit second.


BTW I've found this recipe kicks BUTT without adding any peaches

I am thinking about trying it with apricots, if I can find them. have you ever tryed a diffrent fruit in it?

Yes, I've tried it with raspberries and it works out alright.


The problem with raspberries is they took up a half gallon of my yield, but it still came out very well. Again I only used 3lbs or 1 can of raspberry puree. I was shocked how the puree soaked up so much of my beer, but it tasted pretty good. Raspberry comes through more easily than peaches.

First of all, hello to everyone. I've been using this site for about a year now but this is my first post. Just wanted to throw in that I decided to make this recipe with a slight change. Just wanted to throw it out there to add to a sea of ideas. Thanks for the inspiration.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
6 lbs Wheat DME
4 oz. Belgian Munich Malt
1 lbs Honey (60 min boil)

1.5 oz. U.S. Saaz @ 45 minutes
0.5 oz. U.S. Goldings @ 5 minutes

1 vile WLP380 Hefe IV Ale Yeast (starter: 2 pints water, 1 cup DME, 30 min boil)
Note: I'll be fermenting at the 62-64F range to achieve a clove/ citrus flavor and attempt to avoid banana as much as possible.

3 lbs peaches at secondary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BrewMaster claims this will produce:

OG: 1.061
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.03%
IBU: 25.27
SRM: 7.4

I'm only working on the starter so far so let me know if I have any fatal flaws. Thanks guys, and thanks for posting the original recipe!

What are the thoughts of substituting other fruits (raspberry, green apple, watermelon, etc).

I have a good Razz Melomel bottled and will be making another batch since it is almost gone. Really love the rasberry flavor and might try that instead of the peach.

--------------------------------------------------------
Planning - American Amber Ale
Planning - Marzen Bier
Primary - Trailer Park American Pale Ale
Secondary - Empty
Kegged - Dark Belgian Ale

I've substituted raspberries, cherries, peaches, apricots... all have gone over extremely well.

it all works just fine. The base beer itself stands on it's own so adding any fruit of your tastes will work!

Now that you've brewed this a few times do you have a good FG to shoot for post peach addition. It got too cold here in Dallas, resulting in a stuck fermentation at about 1.024 before I racked the peaches on. Post peaches should I be seeing around a 1.010 or more around a 1.020 (based off the recipe gravities, not based off of my rather high 1.024)because of the fruit sugar addition?

Also what has been your favorite fruit so far?

I usually see an FG around 1.014-16


Favorite fruit is the peaches still. My repeat tasters confirm it every time with a, "It's good, but I like the peaches better."

Apricot went over very well, but it was a bit sweeter or at least more pronounced. I like my beer to taste like beer first and fruit second and peaches seem to have that good combination. You can taste something fruity in it, but it's subtle and drinkable.

Does anyone know if WL320 would end up close the the Wyeast 1010? I already have it on stock and would like to try this.. Also, I wonder how it would taste using WL380, I have both and need to use them!

If you did brew it like this I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it turned out!

Gonna give this brew a go next weekend, to be done before the 4th.

Quick question about this brew before I get going...

How sweet is it? Is it a balanced beer? Or is it more on the sweet side? What was your SG? Im just trying to get a good balance of sweets and bitters. Your SG reading would be helpful to estimate the amount of HBU's I would need for my taste. Brewtoad.com has the SG at about 1.066, that sound about right?

Dylan42 said:

Quick question about this brew before I get going...

How sweet is it? Is it a balanced beer? Or is it more on the sweet side? What was your SG? Im just trying to get a good balance of sweets and bitters. Your SG reading would be helpful to estimate the amount of HBU's I would need for my taste. Brewtoad.com has the SG at about 1.066, that sound about right?

Click to expand...

It ferments relatively dry for me around 1.014-1.016 - it's balanced. I apologize for not keeping up on this post. With a few years going by I'd neglected to stay up on this as I had originally intended. SG really hasn't been my concern so long as I end up with at least 5.5 gal in primary from a full boil and 5 gal yield in the keg but it should land around 1.066-1.070... final gravity has been consistent for me, and it's not overly sweet. It's a nice wheat beer with a hint of peaches. I just brewed a new batch of this a few weeks ago - recipe is pretty consistent in delivering the same results.

Gonna give this brew a go next weekend, to be done before the 4th.

Click to expand...

TexasBock said:

First of all, hello to everyone. I've been using this site for about a year now but this is my first post. Just wanted to throw in that I decided to make this recipe with a slight change. Just wanted to throw it out there to add to a sea of ideas. Thanks for the inspiration.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
6 lbs Wheat DME
4 oz. Belgian Munich Malt
1 lbs Honey (60 min boil)

1.5 oz. U.S. Saaz @ 45 minutes
0.5 oz. U.S. Goldings @ 5 minutes

1 vile WLP380 Hefe IV Ale Yeast (starter: 2 pints water, 1 cup DME, 30 min boil)
Note: I'll be fermenting at the 62-64F range to achieve a clove/ citrus flavor and attempt to avoid banana as much as possible.

3 lbs peaches at secondary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BrewMaster claims this will produce:

OG: 1.061
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.03%
IBU: 25.27
SRM: 7.4

I'm only working on the starter so far so let me know if I have any fatal flaws. Thanks guys, and thanks for posting the original recipe!

Click to expand...

How did this turn out?

Forgive me if I just missed this earlier...

Do you do a full boil or partial boil for this recipe? If partial boil, is it 3 gallons?

Ryush806 said:

Forgive me if I just missed this earlier...

Do you do a full boil or partial boil for this recipe? If partial boil, is it 3 gallons?

Click to expand...

I now do a full boil. When I started this recipe years ago it was a partial boil of 3 gallons.

Sorry for the confusion. I wish I could edit the recipe but for some reason I'm unable to now.

I waited a week and then racked on to the peach puree OG was about 1.060, the secondary gravity reading was 1.022 (probably could have waited a few more days in the primary).

Tasting notes

Before primary fermentation the beer had a sweet honey taste up front w/ a strong bitter hop in the after taste and on the back of the tongue.

Before secondary fermentation there is a very smooth taste, reminds me almost of a hefe or blue moon type beer. Not very hoppy w/ a honey after taste.

Question: Did you guys shake it up in the secondary at all to mix the puree in a little better or just let the beer sit on top of the puree? Ill probably keep it in the secondary about 10 days.

Dylan42 said:

I waited a week and then racked on to the peach puree OG was about 1.060, the secondary gravity reading was 1.022 (probably could have waited a few more days in the primary).

Tasting notes

Before primary fermentation the beer had a sweet honey taste up front w/ a strong bitter hop in the after taste and on the back of the tongue.

Before secondary fermentation there is a very smooth taste, reminds me almost of a hefe or blue moon type beer. Not very hoppy w/ a honey after taste.

Question: Did you guys shake it up in the secondary at all to mix the puree in a little better or just let the beer sit on top of the puree? Ill probably keep it in the secondary about 10 days.

Click to expand...

I added the puree to the bottom and racked on top, then turned the fermenter quickly to stir it up into solution... if you do like me and use a CO2 charger to put a bed of CO2 on top before corking the fermenter you can do this without fear of oxidizing and really stir it up good.

Can't wait to hear what you think!

Sweet I just let it be, I racked on top of the peach puree and let it do its thing. I followed your recipe pretty much to the "T", the only thing I did different was add 1/2 oz. of zythos and cascades in at the las 5-10 min. Smells tasty through the airlock! I will definitely give some feedback in a couple of weeks!

Racked it in to the keg last night with a final gravity of 1.010 tasted good but I would have actually liked a little more peach taste we will see how it is carbonated. I think next time Ill keep it in the fermenter a little longer. Ill post pics when its carbed.

Dylan42 said:

Racked it in to the keg last night with a final gravity of 1.010 tasted good but I would have actually liked a little more peach taste we will see how it is carbonated. I think next time Ill keep it in the fermenter a little longer. Ill post pics when its carbed.

Click to expand...

If you let the sugars ferment too low it will pull a lot of the sweetness away for the peach flavor.

To get away from the science part and more to the gut part, the minute the krausen drops after adding peaches, I rack to keg. I really wish I could update the original recipe notes. I generally end up anywhere between 1.014 or 1.016. Just be mindful you don't let the yeast ferment out all of the fructose sugars from the fruit or you're going to lose the fruit flavor punch for sure. Here's hoping the bubbles give you a bit more edge!

Yeah I intended to transfer to a keg earlier than I did but i was scrambling to get another keg to do so. Hence the complete fermentation at 1.010. Hoping its still a good beer.

I've been kicking around an idea for a peach wheat. This recipe looks like exactly what I had in mind

Mine didn't turn out good at all. My last three brews have been a bit of a disappointment. Im pretty sure its due to the temp im fermenting at, in my house. Too hot, so I bought a cool brewing fermentation cooler. Will try this one again in the latter part of summer.

Dylan42 said:

Mine didn't turn out good at all. My last three brews have been a bit of a disappointment. Im pretty sure its due to the temp im fermenting at, in my house. Too hot, so I bought a cool brewing fermentation cooler. Will try this one again in the latter part of summer.

Click to expand...

I ALWAYS ferment no higher than 70 on this beer. My ideal fermentation temp on this beer should be 65-68 MAX, and ideally 65 for the profile I like it at.

I'm sorry it did not work out for you, but yes, you MUST under ALL circumstances control your fermentation temperatures for ANY beer you make to ensure proper fermentation.

Yeast are what makes your beer, treat them well.

This is very similar to the peach wheat I make but I also toss in 1lb of dried sliced apricots that I soak in everclear for two days, along with two lbs of crushed peaches. Gives a nice flavor with the peache and apricots.

Did this recipe skipped the honey also had to use a different yeast us 05 salafe
Any who Im not getting any bubbles in my airlock on day 3 of fermentation but I do have a layer of krasuen so all is well. Anyone else experience this ? Im fermenting in the mid 60s

I decided to use this recipe as a point to jump of from in developing an all-grain recipe for a blueberry honey wheat that's sitting in my primary right now. I'll update once it finishes with details on taste, body, what worked, what didn't, etc... I will also update any changes I may make in terms of fermentation times, as the days listed below are only what I am estimating to be necessary for full fermentation. For the time being, here is my variation on the recipe for anyone interested:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 3333 German Wheat
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: Yet to be determined
Boiling Time: 50 Minutes
Color: 3-5 SRM
Primary Fermentation: 7 Days @ 68°F
Secondary Fermentation: 14 Days @ 68°F
______________________________________________________

Hive Mentality: Blueberry Honey Wheat

Grains:


Hop/Addition Schedule:


Yeast:

Sugars:

Fruit:
______________________________________________________

Process:

My fermentation slowed drastically on day 3 as well, but keep in mind that airlock bubbles are not always the best indicator of yeast activity. I thought mine had stopped, but after sitting and watching for a while I discovered that bubbles were still pushing through with long delays in between them. Your best bet is to check your gravity for changes to determine whether or not fermentation has finished.

Yes, but nobody say which water profile did he use in fruit beer!? I think the good water is an important factor. I will first time brew a fruit beer in saturday and my profile water will be something like that: Ca 48, Mg7, Na7, Cl 75, SO4 47.

Subbed. I'd like to give the extract version a go with blueberries!


-Kingboomer

kingboomer said:

Subbed. I'd like to give the extract version a go with blueberries!





-Kingboomer

Click to expand...

King,

If you are interested in being updated on the all-grain blueberry version that's in my secondary right now, you can follow that thread at:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=519024