Peach Saison with Brett B

[billyots]

At my work we adopt an Elberta Peach and Le Grande Nectarine tree every year from Masumoto Farms in Del Ray and go down and pick the two trees over two weekends. I always end up with a flat or two of stonefruit. This year I met some guys from the Bruery and another Southern California brewery and they showed off some beers they did with the peaches. I got inspired and wanted to do a fruit and a brett beer for a while. Here's what I've got so far, any and all advice is welcome.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP585
Yeast Starter: No
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: Brettanomyces B WLP 650
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.064
Final Gravity: 1.006
IBU: 33.2
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 10.4



Recipe Specifics:
Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.00
Anticipated OG: 1.064
Anticipated SRM: 10.4
Anticipated IBU: 33
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Sugars:
Belgian Two-Row Pale Malt [7 lbs]
Munich Malt 20L [3 lbs]
Vienna [1 lbs]
Candy Sugar Clear [1 lbs]

Hops:
1.00 oz Chinook [13.00 %] @60 min (27.2 IBU)
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] @30 min (10.5 IBU)
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] @10 min (2.3 IBU)
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] @ 10 min (1.3 IBU)
Yeast:
Pitch both vials of yeast at start of Primary

Strike 17 qts water at 157 F. 75 minutes at 148
Fly sparge 8 gal at 168

Add in 7 pounds of frozen/rough chopped Peaches and Nectarines in secondary after about 3-4 weeks in primary. Let sit in secondary to taste.

Cheers!

 

[cruizer8]

I am interested in what others think. We just got a box of peaches and I was thinking of what I could brew with them. Also been interested in doing a Brett and this has both boxes ticked for me.

 

[crazyirishman34]

That might be too bitter to let the fruit shine threw. I would shoot for about 15 ibu.

 

[TNGabe]

Do you have a particular reason for using Chinook or is it just something you've got? I'd use something more neutral or even better would be something to compliment the peaches. I'd use Mosaic, Nelson, Motueka, etc type hops. I haven't used mt hood, it's like Willamette I think, so that would be a better single hop to use and just drop the Chinook if you don't want to buy more hops.

Consider dropping the sugar. Between the saison yeast and the brett, I'd expect the beer to end up 1.002 or lower. Consider adding some flaked wheat, barley, and/or oats.

White labs brett vials have a very low cell count, so I don't think you're going to get much brett character from adding it to the primary. Adding it when you bottle will give you more of a classic orval type brett character.

I've only done one beer with peaches. At 2 lbs per gallon in a berliner weisse, it has a great peach nose, but not a defnite peach flavor. I'd proably go 3 lbs/gal next time. So at 7 lbs for 5 gallons, I'd think you'll got some good peach aroma, but not a distinct flavor.

 

[lpdjshaw]

Same as above on the hops - I'd drop the Chinook and go with something more floral/fruity/citrusy or you could use some mellower european hops. I like to use Falconers Flight hops for a lot of my Belgians, including ones with Brett.

Adding the Brett with the Belgian yeast will definitely give you some good Brett character. I did a Brett secondaried Saison (6 months secondary with Chardonnay soaked oak chips, 6 months and counting bottle conditioning) and 3 beers (two Saisons and a Belgian Blonde) with Brett pitched in primary with the Sach and the dual pitched beers have more Brettyness to them. I haven't tasted the bottle conditioned beer in a few months but it gets Brettier as time goes by.

I would drop the Munich/Vienna combo to no more than 15 or 20%. I like mashing my Brett beers a little higher than a regular Belgian, maybe 150-152 ish but the fruit may give you extra sugars for the Brett to munch on? Consider a 75 or 90 minute boil if you're gonna use Belgian Pilsner. You could also get away without the sugar since you're adding the Brett and fruit.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[tgmartin000]

Yep. Cut the ibu for sure. Maybe closer to 20. I also like the idea of more neutral hops. East Kent are pretty traditional for the style. If it were me, I'd want to showcase the peach more than the hops.

 

[billyots]

Thank you for the suggestions, all things to work on and think about.

The hops were just stuff I had on hand and thought it was a little out of place, but would be an interesting combo.

Do you think a starter would be required for this? I've read and heard things about how Brett shines better when it struggles a little more.

 

[lpdjshaw]

No, you don't need a starter for a 5 gal batch - you have plenty of yeast. On my Brett/Sach beers I pitch one vial of each into 8.5 gal of wort.

 

[Weezy]

minimize the hops. This is not a beer you're looking for hop flavor from. This beer is fruit and brett and tertiary some residual belgian yeast esters. If you had zero fruit, I'd say try some dry hops. In this case, I'd go with 10-15 IBUs of something simple....not chinook. Mt. Hood sounds fine to me.

Your method sounds fine to me but you might get more character out of everything if you stagger the yeast. primary on the saison for 2 days at 68-70*F, stop it short (i.e. cold crash), siphon it off the saison yeast into a secondary, then pitch the brett in a secondary, let the breett work for a month or two then add the fruit. This will get you ~65-70% attenuation on the saison, giving you Belgian esters in your finished beer, but also still leave simple and complex sugars for the brett to have fun with. You could even save 1/2 pound of the sugar to dose with the brett addition. But this is all preference only. It depends on what you want. imho, this method should yield a more complex and probably slightly sweeter beer. double pitching at first, as you propose, I'd expect to be drier and less sweet in the end.

good luck! have fun!

 

[TNGabe]

But this is all preference only. It depends on what you want.

good luck! have fun!

OP, if you take one thing away from the thread, it should be this from Weezy. We've all got opinions or things that work for us, but mixed fermetations have so many variables, there really isn't a best way, just different ways with different results.

 

[newbies13]

I am certainly no expert but that looks like a pretty large amount of hops for a delicate peach flavor to break through.