Peach Puree Questions

[BSBrewer83]

My buddy has a few peach trees and will be donating some peaches. They are ready to be picked right now. I just moved this last week and cannot brew for at least a week. I plan to puree the peaches right after I get them then freeze them. Once fermentation is done add them to the fermenter. I have more than enough space in my fermenter so that is not an issue.

I have never used fruit with brewing. I have a couple of questions. One, is this the best course of action? Two, how do I deal with sanitation with these peaches?

This is going to be a 10g batch of a Peach Blonde. I don't have a recipe yet as I am waiting to see how many peaches I get. The more peaches the higher the gravity I will go. Does anyone have a general peach puree lb/per gallon of beer ratio?

 

[Fishn-tin-sean]

I just got done bottling a wheat beer using apricots (pitted) rough chopped and added to the secondary fermenter post primary complete fermentaiton.

I washed, pitted and rough chopped the cots added them to a 1gal glad bag weighed out to 5 lbs and placed in deep freezer until primary was getting close to end of fermentation. I used about 1lbs fruit per gallon of beer.

Hardest part is timing and planning on when to get fruit ready to use.

I took the fruit out of freezer 2 days before and stored in reefer to defrost. Once almost defrosted I added 1 crushed campden tablet to the fruit and left on the counter covered with plastic wrap for 24 hours.

The campden is said to "sterlize" and get rid of the bad yeasties, possible infectors and such. I not claiming to be an expert, but this process worked for me to date and no infection, the apricot wheat is bottling conditioning nicely and has a nice apricot flavor and aroma. There is a little bitterness from the apricots as the skin is naturally tart or tannic.

I placed the treated fruit into the secondary and racked the beer on top.

If I were to do it again, I would use a reusable fine nylon mesh bag to contain fruit and pull out of the fermenter come bottling time as I lost some beer due to fruit pulp clogging my bottling wand. Oh yeah and the fruit floats.

I am seeing some cloudiness in the beer during conditioning, but have read this normal and usually settles out during the refrigeration stage. There are steps to reduce the clouding, but oh to hell with it.

Hope this helps!
SJ

 

[BSBrewer83]

I just got done bottling a wheat beer using apricots (pitted) rough chopped and added to the secondary fermenter post primary complete fermentaiton.

I washed, pitted and rough chopped the cots added them to a 1gal glad bag weighed out to 5 lbs and placed in deep freezer until primary was getting close to end of fermentation. I used about 1lbs fruit per gallon of beer.

Hardest part is timing and planning on when to get fruit ready to use.

I took the fruit out of freezer 2 days before and stored in reefer to defrost. Once almost defrosted I added 1 crushed campden tablet to the fruit and left on the counter covered with plastic wrap for 24 hours.

The campden is said to "sterlize" and get rid of the bad yeasties, possible infectors and such. I not claiming to be an expert, but this process worked for me to date and no infection, the apricot wheat is bottling conditioning nicely and has a nice apricot flavor and aroma. There is a little bitterness from the apricots as the skin is naturally tart or tannic.

I placed the treated fruit into the secondary and racked the beer on top.

If I were to do it again, I would use a reusable fine nylon mesh bag to contain fruit and pull out of the fermenter come bottling time as I lost some beer due to fruit pulp clogging my bottling wand. Oh yeah and the fruit floats.

I am seeing some cloudiness in the beer during conditioning, but have read this normal and usually settles out during the refrigeration stage. There are steps to reduce the clouding, but oh to hell with it.

Hope this helps!
SJ

Great advice! I just got the peaches last night. Feels like close to 15 lbs. I will weigh them tonight. They are still pretty hard so might wait a couple of days to chop them up. I think I will go with the same route as you did. Thank you.

 

[IslandLizard]

Great advice! I just got the peaches last night. Feels like close to 15 lbs. I will weigh them tonight. They are still pretty hard so might wait a couple of days to chop them up. I think I will go with the same route as you did. Thank you.

Riper fruit is sweeter and gives more flavor to your beer. You can puree them in a sanitized food processor or blender, after thawing out from the freezer, to get better extraction. Also adding some Pectic Enzyme prevents pectin haze in your beer, later.

When pureed, you'll be adding quite some juice, so brew a bit stronger beer to end up with your intended ABV, mouthfeel, etc.