Help Adding Peaches to Heffeweizen

[wfred]

All:

I have a 5 gallon batch of Heffeweizen I just brewed and it is in primary right now. I also have 5 lbs. of peaches in the freezer that I wanted to add to the beer to make a peach flavored Heffeweizen for my wife.

My plan of attack was to thaw out the peaches and dump them in a big mesh bag that I use to make wine. I would transfer the beer out of the bucket in primary to a new sanitized bucket for secondary. Once the beer was in the bucket, I would drop in the bag of peaches and let it sit for a week or so before i keg it.

This is the first time I have tried a fruit flavored beer, I don't normally care for them so I haven't explored making them. Any thoughts on my approach or any suggestions to make sure I don't ruin 5 gallons of perfectly good beer?

Thanks,

Fred

 

[Herky21]

I would make sure that the peaches are sanitized. If they were fresh and then you froze them there can still be bacteria. Freezing keeps it from growing, but doesn't necessarily sanitize. Freezing, does however, break down the cell walls of the fruit which can be good. You can steam sanitize, briefly simmer, use starsan, or alcohol like vodka. I'd probably go with a little vodka so you keep the fresh fruit flavor. You can also add a touch of artificial flavoring when bottling to accentuate the natural peach flavor. This is nice obviously, as you can taste the beer when kegging/bottling to make sure you have enough peach flavor and then adjust. I'm not sure about the bag when I've used fruit I've just put it in as is to maximize contact. Good luck!

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I've never had good luck with peaches myself, they always seem to ferment down to a muddled sort of fruit flavor. I know other people have had similar results but then I've had some peach beers that were fine. I think with peaches more is best. A lot more than you think you need. I would start at 2lb. per gallon and maybe go 3-4 per gallon.