Fruit for Beer

Hey everyone,
The last time I brewed a peach ale I used frozen bagged friut from Wal Mart as it was the only place I could find just peaches. I noticed that they were almost unripened or had an unripened smell to them. The beer turned out nice however I was wanting to use something better. I know my Homebrew supply shop carries the 49oz. cans of Oregon fruit puree. I was wondering how much of that do I use for a 6 gallon batch of peach ale? I really want the peaches to stand out. I used 7lbs. of frozen peaches before. I am thining I may need 2 cans but not sure. Thanks

 

I'd start with 1 can.

 

1 can should do. Your not going to get a super peach flavor though, unless you either backsweeten, or have something unfermentable in the grain bill. Most flavor from fruit is because of the sweetness that ferments out. You will get the essence, but not a super sweet peach taste.

 

Could I just mash at a higher temp. to leave unfermentables? Maybe 154F or so?

 

That could work, or maybe try some honey malt (Haven't tried it with fruit, but it does leave some sweatness)

 

Apricots make a better peach beer than peaches, generally. Make your beer with apricots and just tell folks it's peaches. You'd be surprised how many can't tell the difference.

 

Yeah I have heard that and as a matter of fact, my peach ale had a nice apricot flavor to it. I just don't think later down the road when we start commercial brewing it that we could false advertise haha. I will try a couple different things like mash temp and maybe some different malts.

 

+1 on using honey malt. I use that with all my fruit beers.

 

How much? 10%-20%?

 

Do one can of the Oregon Apricot puree and back it up with half a bottle of peach extract at kegging/bottling. This comes out amazing on my cream ale. Nice peach flavor and aroma w/o the fake perfumy character you get from just using extract. I also mash a little high when I plan for fruit.