Peachy

[PostModern]

I've got 15 litres of 1.040 pale ale bubbling away (to harvest the yeast) and was thinking I'd rack the beer onto some peaches that I have sitting around... actually, some peaches and 500g of Golden Syrup.

Anyway, what I was wondering about is how to prepare the fruit. Should I boil it for a while? I was thinking of upping the volume of the batch anyway with maybe 2-3 litres of water and the 500g of syrup... or maybe 5 extra litres with some more DME...

So should I boil the peaches, syrup, DME and water then rack or just toss in the peaches raw (scared of infections tho)... what about the skins? Should I peel them?

How much fruit would be enough to impart a peachy note without overwhelming the yeast's esters and the hallertau aroma?

Experience and input from fruit beer brewers appreciated.

Damn, I feel like a n00b

Cheers,
PoMo.

 

[PostModern]

OK. Seems no-one knows
What I've read so far:

* Use peach extract....
Nope.

* Don't cook them as you'll get pectin haze.
Fair enough but what about infections?
- Could be OK as there will be some 4% beer and a shitload of live yeast on 'em
- Freeze and thaw the peaches

* Boil 'em and add pectin enzyme to the tertiary fermenter.

Stuff it, I'm making jam.

I think I'll just rack the beer onto golden syrup and some DME in 5 litres of water. Maybe half a handful of Perle hops boiled for an hour too.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

skin and stone the fruit, put into a secondary, rack your beer onto them, a strong ferment starts again untill the fruit sugars are used up. Leave on the fruit few weeks.


peach stones are supposed to contain cyanide, but I would put them in a bag and hang it in the secondary for a couple of weeks. That *should* be safe enough java script:emoticon('')






Jovial Monk

 

[PostModern]

Thanks, JM. I think I'll have to wait for another batch. The peaches are looking a little sad and I don't want to risk a batch on them. I think I'll just stick to the DME and golden syrup and hops for now. My dad's farmer friends reckon their really good peaches will be in at Christmas, so I'll grab some of them and do a nice brew for them.