Adding Peach Flavor

My buddy and I just brewed a Peach Weizen beer, and pitched 40 whole peaches in (smashed before pitching) during secondary. There is a small hint of peach aroma, but for 40 peaches there isn't much peach flavor. Any ideas for adding more flavor using actual peaches. We'd prefer not to use an extract and are looking for better ways to prepare the peaches/better idea of when to add. Thanks

Peach seems to be very hit or miss for people. I have used it in beer and barely been able to tell that it's there. It gives a sort of mute, generic fruit flavor. However, some people have gotten great success.

How long have you let the peaches sit in the beer?

One thing you could try doing is add some apricots. Apricots have a very peach-like flavor but they are more acidic so the acidic flavor remains after the sugar is fermented out. The combination of peaches and apricots should get you very close to a tart peach flavor.

You could also experiment with adding a good peach schnapps. I'm not sure if they use any preservatives in it -- if so do not add it -- but if not you could add some and see if it gives you a good flavor.

I know this is not quite the answer that you want, but my only experience with peaches is for a mead. I added 23 lbs of them into a 5 gallon batch and it still has very little peach flavor. From what I hear, peaches add little flavor to beer or meads. You need a lot of them!!!