White Peach Summer Saison advice!

Hello all,

I recently moved into an apartment and am switching to BIAB out of necessity. I have done about 4 brews before so I'm somewhat of a newbie. I wanted to brew a summer saison for my friends. I plan to brew the "Rye Saisonby Steve Fletty,St. Paul, Minnesota" located on this webpage: http://byo.com/mead/item/2822-saison-a-beer-for-all-seasons

Because I've scaled down to BIAB I plan to brew two batches. One will be an exact clone of the recipe that I linked to. The second I plan to try and incorporate white peach flavors into the saison recipe. As I am a new brewer and don't fully understand how to incorporate these flavors or how the white peach will impact the original recipe I greatly appreciate any advice you can give regarding my second batch. Also, I have attached a screenshot of the recipe scaled down to a 2.25 gallon batch in my beer smith software for reference.

Thank you for your time and any advice you can give!

Recipe looks solid. But I have an important question on your yeast choice:
Is this it? https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp670-american-farmhouse-blend

If so, you probably DO NOT want to use this yeast. It is a blend with brettanomyces which will require a long fermentation and develop a lot of wild character.

To add the peach, I would try buying chunked frozen peaches and racking the beer on top of those. Ive found with packaged, frozen fruit, you do not need to worry about sanitizing the fruit itself.

Thank you for your response m00ps. I have to buy my supplies online and the online stores I looked at were both out of the Wyeast 3726 that was in the original recipe so I wasn't sure what other yeast to use. I appreciate any recommendations regarding the yeast.

When you say to rack the beer on the frozen peaches do you mean when I siphon the beer in the primary fermentor? How much frozen peaches should I used? Thanks for any clarification.

Adding a bunch fo fruit to a beer is one of the few times I would recommend a secondary. Ferment as normal in the primary for 1-2 weeks, then rack it into the secondary fermentor (which should have the peaches at the bottom). Keep splashing to a minimum.


Doing it in this order will both help prevent chances of infection (due to the alcohol content at the time whent he fruit is added) and make sure the fruit flavors are kept as much as possible. If you added the leaches before fermentation even started, much of the aroma would fly right out the airlock

For this yeast, you need to strap in for 3-4 months. Most of the fermentation will go as normal, but then the brettanomyces will slowly work on it and impart a very distinct wild character. If you package it before it reaches final gravity, you could have bottle bombs on your hands. I would recommend getting any other saison yeast. WY3711 would be perfect for a fruit saison IMO. Some other common options:
- belle saison (dry)
- WY 3726
- WLP 565
- WLP 566

As far as the peach flavor goes, I would recommend using frozen chunks as mentioned before... But instead of the pound per gallon rate that many reccomend, I've had the best experience using only a fraction of that amount and supplementing the flavor with LorAnn flavor oils.

How about Safbrew T-58? Would that be a good choice?

OK I keep reading about how awesome M27 yeast is for Saisons. Think Ima give that a go

Thanks for the helpful replies. TheMerkle, how much do you reduce the amount of peaches and how much LorAnn oils do you use? Is there any way you could link to a webpage for the oils you recommend using?

Also, I know m00ps mentioned since the fruit is frozen there is no need to worry about sanitization, do I need to worry about it with the oil? Would dropping the peaches in a little Star San before putting them in the secondary be a good idea?

Thanks for the help!

Starsan on the peaches before going into secondary wouldn't hurt, but probably isn't necessary. When using LorAnn oils, I usually drop my fruit by 50 to 80 percent (keeping maybe 1 to 2 pounds per 5 gallons) and then adding one half to one dram of LorAnn oils in the bottling bucket or keg. No need to sanitize the oil.

mwm5461 said:

Thanks for the helpful replies. TheMerkle, how much do you reduce the amount of peaches and how much LorAnn oils do you use? Is there any way you could link to a webpage for the oils you recommend using?

Also, I know m00ps mentioned since the fruit is frozen there is no need to worry about sanitization, do I need to worry about it with the oil? Would dropping the peaches in a little Star San before putting them in the secondary be a good idea?

Thanks for the help!

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I just added 25 kiwis to a beer which I froze, skinned, then chopped up. I just dunked them in sanitizer real quick after skinning but im guessing the rinsing & freezing I did beforehand took care of any bugs. Ive also used cucumbers using this method, but without the freezing or skinning. Just a thorough washing and dunking in starsan. I was sure I used a sanitized mat and knife to cut them though

Ive used lorann oils and the like a couple times. You cna just add straight into the fermentor. Lorann oils usually come in 1dram tiny bottles. IME, that amount is pretty spot on for a noticeable, but not overpowering flavor. But it depends a lot on recipe. If you are already adding peaches, I woudl wait to taste it a few days after adding the peaches, then if its not strong enough, try adding 1/2 the bottle and taste in another day or two

Thanks TheMerkle. So if I'm trying to end with 2 gallons for bottling then you recommend .4 to .8 pounds of peaches and .2 to 4 dram of LorAnn oils?

Thanks for the added information m00ps. I appreciate the responses helping me to add some peach flavoring to this recipe.

One last question regarding the yeast. In the recipe I linked to in my initial post it mentions a 1L yeast starter. Is this necessary for my 2 gallon batch I plan to bottle? I don't fully understand if I can have too much yeast? I have two packages of WY 3711 French saison yeast that m00ps recommended. Any advice on the yeast would be appreciated. I plan to ferment in a 3 gallon glass carbon if that is helpful at all. Thanks!

mwm5461 said:

Thanks for the added information m00ps. I appreciate the responses helping me to add some peach flavoring to this recipe.

One last question regarding the yeast. In the recipe I linked to in my initial post it mentions a 1L yeast starter. Is this necessary for my 2 gallon batch I plan to bottle? I don't fully understand if I can have too much yeast? I have two packages of WY 3711 French saison yeast that m00ps recommended. Any advice on the yeast would be appreciated. I plan to ferment in a 3 gallon glass carbon if that is helpful at all. Thanks!

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Wyeasts packed are made for a decent cells count for a 5gal batch, when they are fresh at least and handled well regarding temperature. If you are doing a 2 gal batch. I wouldnt worry at all about making a starter

Okay thanks. Will the alcohol content be thrown off with the sugars from the peaches in the secondary? Will it effect the carbonation when I bottle?

mwm5461 said:

Okay thanks. Will the alcohol content be thrown off with the sugars from the peaches in the secondary? Will it effect the carbonation when I bottle?

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It won't be "thrown off" it should add a little bit to the actual OG. The way ive roughly estimated it for adding fruit or juice is this:
- find the nutritional content and the grams of sugar per serving
- figure out the total grams of sugar you added
- plug this number into brewing software as cane sugar and see how much OG points it has for your batch size
- add this to your measured OG

it shouldnt effect carbonation at all so long as you give it enough time to ferment out the sugars from the peaches