Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

OK. I have a nice light american wheat ready to go to secondary. My intention was to make an apricot wheat. I was going to put 3-4 pounds of frozen apricots in the secondary and then transfer on top of that. I also purchased apricot extract (I plan to use just a little to round out the flavor in the finished product).

Apparently you cannot buy frozen apricots in Cedar Rapids or Marion. I don't want to work with fresh fruit. The oregon purees are an option, but after shipping, that adds more than $20 to the price of this batch of beer. I am thinking I need to switch to a different fruit. I can get frozen peaches, sweet cherries, and raspberries. Peaches are obviously going to be closest to apricots, and would probably pair well with the apricot extract in the end. Has anyone here brewed with peaches? What were your experiences?

Cherries would be my next choice. My wife loves Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.

Sorry, no first hand experience.

I've read somewhere....maybe Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, that peach flavor doesn't hold up very well in a beer, but that adding apricot extract at the end of fermentation to a peach beer would add character.

Sorry, no first hand experience.

I've read somewhere....maybe Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, that peach flavor doesn't hold up very well in a beer, but that adding apricot extract at the end of fermentation to a peach beer would add character.

Derek wrote:Sorry, no first hand experience.

I've read somewhere....maybe Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, that peach flavor doesn't hold up very well in a beer, but that adding apricot extract at the end of fermentation to a peach beer would add character.

I had not read that, but was sort of hoping it might be the case. Apricot and peach are such similar flavors.

You can always buy some fresh fruit and dice then freeze it. I would think that it will take a lot of apricot as the flavor is mild. Have you looked at Sam's Club? I was going to see if they had bulk raspberry for my mead.

I did a "peach melba" wheat last summer - used Oregon purees of peach and raspberry (2 cans peach to one can of raspberry) in the secondary. No extracts, just the fruit.

The raspberry dominated on the front, but the peach was noticeable on the finish. It was decent when young, but the fruitiness doesn't hold up very long. It was cloudy from the fruit pectic, too.

I've got several bottles left, I'll bring one to the meeting tomorrow.

The meeting is tomorrow? Wow how time flies.

I tried this before it it is true that the peach flavor is hard to bring out in the brew. Good luck, though!

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