Ideas or pointers for a 7.5% ABV Peach Wheat

[wnylaxfan18]

Hey Everyone,
I just downloaded beersmith to help me create recipes now and in the future. I also found Peach Wheat recipes in the forums but no one has responded to them in over a year so I thought I would start it again.

I'm trying to create recipes or styles based on songs/music. I did a recipe called Monkey Wrench (Foo Fighters). For this next one I wanted to come up with one for the song SoulShine by The Allman Brothers Band.

I wanted it to be a wheat beer, little higher in the ABV since the song talks Soulshine being "better than Moonshine, better than rain". The Peach would come from the band since they are from GA.

Let me know if you have any suggestions, or have seen a recipe that I mightve overlooked, or can adapt to.

Thanks!

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

7.5% is pretty high for a wheat beer. It's high enough you will start to get an alcohol taste/warmness that you may -- or may not -- find sits well in a wheat beer.

When it comes to working with peach, it's been my experience and other people's experience that peach ferments down to a sort of muted flavor. My guess is you really have to go overboard on the amount of fruit to get a good peach flavor. In the alternative you can do apricot, which has a peach-like flavor but it's a little more acidic so the fruit flavor stands out.

Just a couple things to think about.

 

[corwin3083]

I did the following peach wheat recipe that turned out to have a nice peach aftertaste:

OG: 1.052
FG: 1.011
ABV: 5.3%

6# wheat DME
.5oz cascade @ 60min
.5oz cascade @ 10min
WLP029 Kolsch Ale Yeast (starter)
#3 peaches, sliced, boiled, added directly to primary

I've made other all-wheat DME beers with up to 6% ABV by bumping up the DME to 7#. Haven't tried going further with the ABV, so I can't say anything about alcohol harshness past that point.

 

[Jenks829]

I like your method of linking the music with the beer. Very cool.

As far as peach, I've never brewed with it. I was planning on it but when I went to the store to buy peach baby food (there were no fresh peaches at that time) I wasn't able to find it so I bought apricot baby food. The beer came out great. I used 1 pound of apricot baby food for 2.5 gallons of wheat beer.

I realize my path doesn't help your link with the music because I used apricot and it wasn't a high ABV beer. If I could offer any advice it would be to first hammer out a tried and true high ABV wheat beer and then brew it again and work with the peach. This way you are only working with one variable and it will be easier to tweak. If you try and jump in to the high alcohol peach beer and it comes out good but not great, it will be more difficult to zero in on what could be improved.

By all means, if you find a good recipe, post it so we can jump on your coat tails!

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Here's the deal with peaches in beer.... you have to use a metric f*ckton of them. The sugars are completely fermentable. And the peaches themselves don't lend a ton of flavor.

So what does that tell us? You need to plan on whatever beer you're making being a relatively dry beer if you really want the peach flavor to shine through. I made this last summer. It was a big hit at the homebrew club.

Peach Saison
Single infusion mash - 149

5 lbs. Belgian Pils
3 lbs. White Wheat
2 lbs. Munich
4 oz. Special B

1oz. Willamette 20min
1oz. Hallertau 20min

3lbs. homemade peach puree - 30 minutes
2.6lbs. homamade peach puree - flameout
5lbs. cut up under ripe peaches - in primary fermenter after 1st week of fermentation. Leave in for at least 2 weeks.

2 week secondary to help all fruit particulates clear out.

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

 

[wnylaxfan18]

I'm currently fermenting a Paulaner Hefeweizen Clone which I think I might wait to see how that turns out and whether I will make a Peach Wheat Ale.

I was looking for the light straw color to the beer that would be lighter in taste with it being in summer. Not sure if that will be able to happen if I'm shooting for an ABV over 6.5%.

I like the Saison recipe, seems rather interesting and I will have to look into the background of it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.