Superstition Peacher Creature Clone attempt

[MightyMosin]

I'm going to attempt a clone of the Superstition Peacher Creature mead. This is advertised as a Grapefruit, Peach mead with Hops and Sea Salt at 11% ABV.

I'm going to try this as the base for a 5 gallon batch:
4L Les Vergers Boiron Peach Puree (~1.040 SG per Liter)
10.6 Lb Wildflower honey (.88 gallon)
~3.2 gallon spring water
Lalvin 71B yeast 5g
Northern Brewer Crystallized Grapefruit ~ 18 g in secondary
~ 1g sea salt in secondary
~3g Citra Hops in secondary

I'm not sure of the type of hops or amount, nor the amount of sea salt, and those will be gradual additions to try and get to the proper amount.

Any suggestions from those that like this specific mead?

 

[Dan O]

I'm going to attempt a clone of the Superstition Peacher Creature mead. This is advertised as a Grapefruit, Peach mead with Hops and Sea Salt at 11% ABV.

I'm going to try this as the base:
4L Les Vergers Boiron Peach Puree (~1.040 SG per Liter)
10.6 Lb Wildflower honey (.88 gallon)
~3.2 gallon spring water
Lalvin 71B yeast 5g
Northern Brewer Crystallized Grapefruit ~ 18 g in secondary
~ 1g sea salt in secondary
~3g Citra Hops in secondary

I'm not sure of the type of hops or amount not the amount of seal saly and those will be very gradual additions to try and get to the proper amount.

Any suggestions from those that like this specific mead?

That sounds delicious. I wish I could offer something, but, I still have not used hops in any of my meads yet. But, now I'm curious to try & find some of that to try.

 

[MightyMosin]

Doea anyone have suggestions on whether I should add all the peach puree up front or possibly let the honey to mostly complete and then add the puree to step ferment?

I'm planning on ferment temperatures at about 56 to 63 out in the garage. I want to keep as much flavor and aroma as possible.

 

[bushpilot]

Adding the fruit in the primary vessel towards the end of fermentation has always worked well for me.

The few times I have added fruit up front, I felt I had less control of the overall picture. When the fruit is obviously depleted, I want to rack it, but then I don't want to rack an ongoing fermentation of the primary sugars (honey).

I think at lower temperatures especially, the fruit can go yuck before the bulk of the fermentation is done. If I wait, I find that fermentation and fruit depletion can end more closely timed, and my first racking is very effective.

This is what I would do in your recipe, I think I would try to add the puree when I expect the primary is about the same SG as the puree. Not precisely, just semi sort-of, earlier or later is fine.

I have never done a side by side comparison of different fruit timing options. There is a lot of discussion about the plusses and minuses of the different options, but I believe most of it is an echo chamber of what has been stated before.

It would be great if someone did a controlled test of four fruit timing options:

• Fruit up front in primary
• Fruit late primary
• Fruit in secondary, before stabilization (at least some fermentation of the fruit)
• Fruit in secondary, after stabilization (little to no fermentation of the fruit)

I'm hoping there will be some contrary thoughts, because this is an area where I have more to learn.

 

[MightyMosin]

When the fruit is obviously depleted, I want to rack it, but then I don't want to rack an ongoing fermentation of the primary sugars (honey).

That's a great point. I'll likely keep the puree out until the SG gets down to something like 1.010 and then add it in. That should allow me to get it off of the fruit puree remains as soon as those sugars are fermented out. Some other threads that I have read suggest that this may also help preserve the fruit flavors and aroma.

I am planning a 5 gallon batch, but maybe I'll do two 1.25 gallon batches. One with puree up front added at about 2/3 sugar break and the other one with the puree added at right about 1.000 SG.

Both ways should minimize sitting on fruit waste with one being added at about 1.027 and the other at 1.000 SG. My gut is saying that there probably won't be a whole lot of difference, but I don't want to do one with the puree in at the beginning.

Edit: I've done the numbers over and I'll definitely be trying 2 different small batches.

 

[Dan O]

That's a great point. I'll likely keep the puree out until the SG gets down to something like 1.010 and then add it in. That should allow me to get it off of the fruit puree remains as soon as those sugars are fermented out. Some other threads that I have read suggest that this may also help preserve the fruit flavors and aroma.

I am planning a 5 gallon batch, but maybe I'll do two 1.25 gallon batches. One with puree up front added at about 2/3 sugar break and the other one with the puree added at right about 1.000 SG.

Both ways should minimize sitting on fruit waste with one being added at about 1.027 and the other at 1.000 SG. My gut is saying that there probably won't be a whole lot of difference, but I don't want to do one with the puree in at the beginning.

Edit: I've done the numbers over and I'll definitely be trying 2 different small batches.

Will this be your first time using this puree? Having never had the mead you're trying to recreate, I don't know how strong the peach flavor is & how forward the hops are.
All I can offer about the peach is, I know first hand it take a massive amount to get the peach froward that I usually strive for. This may be different with the puree, I don't know for sure. I have avoided purees because of racking losses, so, maybe, the flavors come through better because of more surface area?
I look forward to your results, as it does sound delicious.

 

[MightyMosin]

Will this be your first time using this puree? Having never had the mead you're trying to recreate, I don't know how strong the peach flavor is & how forward the hops are.
All I can offer about the peach is, I know first hand it take a massive amount to get the peach froward that I usually strive for. This may be different with the puree, I don't know for sure. I have avoided purees because of racking losses, so, maybe, the flavors come through better because of more surface area?
I look forward to your results, as it does sound delicious.

I have never used peaches, whole or in a puree.
With what I am going for, the peach profile is there but not super strong and it it balanced pretty well with the grapefruit. You cannot pick out the hops, so they will be pretty light. The Sea Salt is the item that pulls all the flavors together and I will be very careful with those additions as you can't take it out.

I have started the two small batches and I am going to be impatient waiting for the fermentation to get to the point that I can start doing the peach additions. I do have a small amount of frozen peaches that I will also add in secondary and when that is all done I will press them to get every last bit out... I think I'll only have 3 or 4 pounds to add to each batch.

 

[MightyMosin]

This is what I would do in your recipe, I think I would try to add the puree when I expect the primary is about the same SG as the puree. Not precisely, just semi sort-of, earlier or later is fine.

As I think about this more, I am liking this idea of adding to the must when the SG is about the same as the puree. This just seems to make sense at a gut level as the honey and fruit should finish at about the same point in time.
I'll still do the other batch at somewhere between 1.010 or 1.000 and see if there is any real perceptible differences between the two.

now I'm curious to try & find some of that to try.

Good luck on finding any more of the Peacher Creature. The last time I was at the Meadery, I purchased a case, which turned out to be the last one they had to sell. Online search shows that these guys may have some: The Wine and Cheese Place STL: Wine Store, Liquor Store, Craft Beer, Curbside Pickup

https://superstitionmeadery.com/wp-...Peacher_Creature_Superstition_Meadery-1-1.pdf

 

[MightyMosin]

While waiting on the batches fermenting, I decided to put some of the original mead I'm trying to replicate into a flask and use my Hydrometer.
I had to check myself a couple times as I couldn't believe how high the SG is. This read at 1.072!!! There is enough sugars in there to add another 9.7% of alcohol.

The crazy thing is that it doesn't come off as super sweet because of the salt that is in there. My only guess on this is that someone screwed up badly with the salt addition and to salvage the batch they needed a ton of sweetness to balance it out... who would want to dump a 711 gallon batch in place of trying to salvage it? Maybe this is why I can't really detect the hops that are supposed to be in there; they got overwhelmed by the salt and sweetening balancing act?

I don't plan on trying to replicate to that same SG though I will try for the same kind of balance between sweet and the salt.

 

[Dan O]

While waiting on the batches fermenting, I decided to put some of the original mead I'm trying to replicate into a flask and use my Hydrometer.
I had to check myself a couple times as I couldn't believe how high the SG is. This read at 1.072!!! There is enough sugars in there to add another 9.7% of alcohol.

The crazy thing is that it doesn't come off as super sweet because of the salt that is in there. My only guess on this is that someone screwed up badly with the salt addition and to salvage the batch they needed a ton of sweetness to balance it out... who would want to dump a 711 gallon batch in place of trying to salvage it? Maybe this is why I can't really detect the hops that are supposed to be in there; they got overwhelmed by the salt and sweetening balancing act?

I don't plan on trying to replicate to that same SG though I will try for the same kind of balance between sweet and the salt.

I'm thinking less salt will not require such a drastically high FG, yeah?

 

[MightyMosin]

That is certainly my hope.

 

[Ty520]

late to the game, so my info cannot be used at this point, but I just recently finished a peach mead using puree. I found the peach flavor to be surprisingly highly subdued, and I used a higher concentration than you did.

I also had a horrible time racking, and it stayed pretty hazy no matter what i did - not necessarily a bad thing, but for note.

i will eventually give it another go, but probably go with about 6 pounds sliced fresh peaches per gallon

 

[Dan O]

late to the game, so my info cannot be used at this point, but I just recently finished a peach mead using puree. I found the peach flavor to be surprisingly highly subdued, and I used a higher concentration than you did.

I also had a horrible time racking, and it stayed pretty hazy no matter what i did - not necessarily a bad thing, but for note.

i will eventually give it another go, but probably go with about 6 pounds sliced fresh peaches per gallon

For reference, peach & pear are 2 flavors that take a lot of fruit/gallon for those flavors to shine. 6 lbs/gallon is the minimum I would do for a straight melomel. As I said earlier, not sure how subtle the peach is supposed to be compared to the hops.

 

[Ty520]

I haven't tried Peacher Creature yet, but from my experience with their meads, they go really bold on the melomel flavor side, but i would wager the hops are subtle and complimentary - i.e., not bold like an IPA.

 

[MightyMosin]

THanks. I"ll continue with my planned amounts and then adjust more in secondary and see how things get along.

 

[MightyMosin]

While waiting on the batches fermenting, I decided to put some of the original mead I'm trying to replicate into a flask and use my Hydrometer.
I had to check myself a couple times as I couldn't believe how high the SG is. This read at 1.072!!! There is enough sugars in there to add another 9.7% of alcohol.

The crazy thing is that it doesn't come off as super sweet because of the salt that is in there. My only guess on this is that someone screwed up badly with the salt addition and to salvage the batch they needed a ton of sweetness to balance it out... who would want to dump a 711 gallon batch in place of trying to salvage it? Maybe this is why I can't really detect the hops that are supposed to be in there; they got overwhelmed by the salt and sweetening balancing act?

I don't plan on trying to replicate to that same SG though I will try for the same kind of balance between sweet and the salt.

I semi-recently had the opportunity to speak with some people involved with brewing at Superstition and I asked about my idea that someone screwed up on the salt addition and they had to really sweeten it to counter it. I was told that I wasn't too far off of the mark on that guess.

I recently racked my two small test batches to get them off of the puree remains. I did two 1 gallon batches where the puree was added at ~1.040 in one batch and the other at about 1.010. I can't say that I could tell any difference between them out of primary. I've boxed the two batches together for 1.5 gallons after leaving puree and other sediment behind. I've stabilized and added some frozen peached and grapefruit to the secondary and will leave that for a couple of weeks to get all that I can out of the fruit and then decide if I need more peaches or move on to sweetening and other adjustments.

My initial impression if that puree kind of sucks as you have so much at the bottom that it is difficult to get a clean racking without sacrificing more than I would like compared to whole fruit chunks.

 

[bushpilot]

Dissolved salt would raise the SG just like sugar would.

 

[MightyMosin]

Dissolved salt would raise the SG just like sugar would.

Good to know as I hadn't considered that, though it makes sense in hindsight.