Berliner Weisse with fruit

[brewinhard]

Back for more great tips from everyone!

Plan on brewing JZ's Berliner Weisse recipe next week. Will pitch one packet of wyeast European ale and lactobacillus at the same time for a 5.5 gallon batch. After primary I plan on splitting the batch as follows:
Half into a corny keg to age for 2 months as is to increase lacto tang.

The other half will get racked onto oregon peach puree in a carboy to age for 2 months.

Herein lies the question- How much of the fruit do I use? JZ recommends 1/2# of puree per gallon of beer as a good start which would put me at about 1.5 # of puree. I am under the impression that peach is not a robust fruit in flavor or aroma which makes me think I should add slightly more (2#). But I still want the lacto flavor to shine through as well. Any suggestions from people who have either:

1- used oregon peach puree and have a good idea of its strength in flavor/aroma.... or
2- have made a berliner weisse with puree and are willing to share their ideas

Part of me just wants to use the whole 3# can of puree (but it might be too much, especially if it sits for 2 months on the fruit). Thanks for the help in advance!

[Andy]

I've also heard Jamil say that apricot actually gives a much stronger perceived peach character than peach itself does in beer. To get that peach flavor to really shine through you may want to double up on the lbs/gal fruit and go with an apricot puree rather than peach...or maybe go half peach/half apricot. You should be fine with an entire 3lb can especially with a mild fruit like peach or apricot. Most recipes have just enough fruit to give a hint of fruit character...I have used many varieties of Oregon Purees and I often double up or even more because I, like you, really want the fruit to stand out. I think you will still be surprised at how mild the peach character will be even at a pound per gallon. I make a lot of fruit beers and so do some of my brewing buddies...the one thing I often hear, even from those who have won awards with their fruit beers is "If I could go back and do it again I would add more fruit." Never once in 15 years of brewing have I heard anyone say they wish they would have added less. Hope that helps!

[Mylo]

Any suggestions from people who have either:

1- used oregon peach puree and have a good idea of its strength in flavor/aroma.... or
2- have made a berliner weisse with puree and are willing to share their ideas

Part of me just wants to use the whole 3# can of puree (but it might be too much, especially if it sits for 2 months on the fruit). Thanks for the help in advance!

Uh, this is wierd dude. Now you are starting to freak me out. Have you been staking me or some shit? I just made this exact same beer three weeks ago.... Peach puree and all. I'm having a glass of it right now. The wife likes her some sour and fruit. I gave her a taste of Festina Peche and decided that her and I should brew it together.

I'm still on the fence on whether or not this is a good beer or a great beer. I am definitely pleased for my first attempt. I did a sour mash for about 36 hours. I used the whole can in five gallons. The sour has some complexity. I'm glad it's not just one dimensional lacto. The fruit aroma is fading. It was quite strong in the beginning - yet still very pleasant. I do not think it's too much fruit for this style. Not a very clear beer - but who cares. Very drinkable.

Oh, and if you did an English Pale ale two weeks ago, I'm going to call the cops.


Mylo

[brewinhard]

Hey man, what can I say? Great minds think alike! That is truly hilarious that I have been picking up the beer vibe from you all the way back east in Buffalo! Must be that Sedona vortex or something....And BTW, I bottled JZ's special bitter (one of my favorite recipes in his book) three weeks ago and have been enjoying it ever since (no lie!). Weird, huh?

Anywhewww....couple of questions for you Mylo.

1. How long did you let the beer sit on the fruit?

2. Would you recommend that I add the whole can (3#) of peach puree to the 2.5 gallons of Berliner weisse even if it will sit for 2 whole months on the fruit?

3. Would apricot be a better choice instead of the peach? I too enjoyed the Festina peche and am trying to copy it to a degreee....

Once again, thanks for the advice. It seems like you are always one step ahead of me! Don't worry, I 'll try to catch up one of these days so I can help you out too! Oh, yeah, and after I added the dry hops to my orval clone, I got dislodged some serious dissolved CO2 from solution in the carboy, now it seems like the brett is finally starting to ferment a bit. Go figure? Thanks for the help!

[Mylo]

Oh, yeah, and after I added the dry hops to my orval clone, I got dislodged some serious dissolved CO2 from solution in the carboy, now it seems like the brett is finally starting to ferment a bit. Go figure? Thanks for the help!

Yeah... not so funny story about that... My dry hopping task with that beer was not at all typical. I dry hopped in the brett secondary after a month. No hop bag (which I would come to regret). The hops initially sank, but then rose to the top a day later (probably from all the CO2). They dropped back down after a few days. After a week, I tried to bottle. I tried very hard to not suck up the hop debris while racking, but I was not very successful. I then decided that I might have more success if I wrapped a small piece of sanitized hop bag around the bottom of the racking cane. That really hampered the flow. I had to stop every once in a while and swish the end of the racking cane in some starsan to "backwash" the "filter". Couple that with the high amount of dissolved CO2 and my siphon was constantly stopping. I ended up having to push it all out with 1-2 PSI of CO2. Probably took an 1.5 to rack (grrr), and I used up at least a half of a 5# cylinder... oh well. Bottling, corking and caging was the easy part.

Anyway, on to the Berliner Weiss... I just sanitized the can and dumped the contents into the primary when the krausen started to fall. Fermentation kicked in again for another two days. I left it there for another 2 weeks to finish conditioning. Then I racked to the keg. It's pretty fruity in the nose and flavor - but has faded a little. If you were going to leave it on the fruit for 2 months, then I would rack it off of the primary cake and do your secondary in the secondary. Apricot would also be a good choice. I'll make sure I bottle a couple and we can trade.


Mylo