Peaches

[FoothillBrewer]

Summertime = peach season here in the southeast.

I've got a neighbor with a ton of peaches ready for me to pick up. I'm probably going to use 40lbs or so and make a nice peach wine for the significant other, but I'd like to use some and make a Peach Pilsner. Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions on how best to prep the peaches?

Obviously, I'll want to make sure they are washed very well, but I'm not quite sure how to best prepare them. I'm thinking just cut them into slices and dump them into the primary?

[Ironman]

Unless you want your pilsner a little wild you may consider making a peach wine (and using campden tablets to turn the wild microbes into retards first) and adding the finished wine to a finished pilsner. In any case I think your chances of having a clear beer are about nil. It'll probably taste great though.

[Pharmbrewer]

I made a peach barley wine with 10 lbs of fresh peaches. My process was to wash the peaches, slice and pitt using a sanitized knife, then freeze in ziplock bags. To thaw I boiled water in a pot then drained and added peaches and covered with the lid. I then placed this in the oven at about 250 to speed up the thawing process. (Next time I may increase the temp to see if I can get some baked peach pie flavor) Anyway the beer came out great with no signs of infection. hope this helps. Also I did have to run this through a friends filter (5 micron water filter from home depot) to get all the floaties out.

PB
(ps crut if you read this I still have a bottle set aside for you (takes all of my will power not to drink it) I will get around to mailing someday)

[raven19]

My process for a peach Kolch I made a few years back with reasonable success was:

1. wash and then dice fruit
2. cover in boiling water for a while (20 mins maybe)
3. stick blender the lot into a mushy pulp
4. pour into secondary, rack beer ontop

Next time I will freeze inbetween steps 1 & 2. This also breaks open the fleshy fruit cell structure, increases extraction of the sugars and flavours.

I probably should introduce a boil period between steps 2 & 3 also.

[thatguy314]

I was just thinking to myself that I need to make a peach Berliner Weisse this summer.... or maybe apricots... or maybe split the batch in 2.

[brewinhard]

Wash the fruit well, cut it into chunks. Place in a new freezer bag and freeze thoroughly. Pull the peaches out once frozen for use. Boil up some water in a small kettle to sanitize the kettle. Add the peaches from the bag and let them thaw. Once thawed add them to the secondary and rack your beer on top.

[Hopsniffer]

I'm late to this thread, but I was wondering how you calculate the gravity contribution of the fruit?

[brewinhard]

I'm late to this thread, but I was wondering how you calculate the gravity contribution of the fruit?

From what I have read, the sugar contribution is neglible. Keep in mind much of the fruit is water as well which counteracts against any added sugars. Every time I have used fruit I have not noticed a HUGE increase in alcohol so I typically don't worry about the gravity contribution since it is minute.