Hump's Ale de Pêche

My girlfriend wanted me to make a peach beer and was convinced that it would be a great winter-brew (I made it in November). What I created wasn't quite what my girlfriend was looking for, but I find it very tasty. The peach flavor is very subtle. The bitterness came out well-balanced. The fruit enhances the malty-sweetness well.

This is my first attempt at brewing with fruit. Even though it turned out different than what I was *trying* to make, it came out excellent tasting so I deem this attempt successful!

Brewer:	Joshua Humphries		Email:	jhumphries@newenergyassoc.com
Beer:	Hump's Ale de Pêche		Style:	American Wheat
Type:	Extract w/grain		Size:	3 gallons
Color:	16 HCU (~10 SRM)		Bitterness:	29 IBU
OG:	1.049		FG:	1.012
Alcohol:	4.7% v/v (3.7% w/w)
Water:	Publix-brand drinking water.
Grain:	4 oz. American crystal 10L
Steep:	I steeped the grains for about 45 minutes with the temperature starting at about 90 and rising all the way to 190. Its not a very proper schedule, but its the easiest way and also the way presented by Papazian for intermediate brewers. I just put the grains in (in a hop-sack) after I put the kettle on the burner, and remove them when the temperature approaches boiling.
Boil:	40 minutes	SG 1.073	2 gallons
	2 lb. 10 oz. Wheat/Barley Malt mixed (55%/45%) extract 1 lb. Light dry malt extract
	The liquid malt extract I used was from my homebrew store. It was unlabeled (it was one of their "on tap" syrups). The proprietor of the store told me it was about 55% wheat and 45% barley malt. The extract was darker than I expected (closer to the color of an amber extract), so I imagine it was wheat mixed with amber barley malt extract. I used 2 tsp. Irish Moss in the last 10 minutes of the boil to help clear the beer out. Two teaspoons is overkill but... Unfortunately it didn't work well since the beer still came out cloudy... but it tastes great, so who cares. The magic ingredient was 2 lbs. (weight from store, before peeling and pitting) of peaches. I blanched, peeled, pitted, and cut up the peaches. After the boil was finished, I put the peaches in the kettle. They stayed in there until the wort cooled to about 90° (a little over 30 minutes). I then strained the wort when I added it to the primary (5 gallon glass carboy with 1 gallon of very cold water in it) to remove irish moss and peach pieces.
Hops:	1 oz. Spalt (6.0% AA, 40 min.) .5 oz. Saaz (4.0% AA, 15 min.)
Yeast:	White Labs Liquid Yeast - Belgian Wit Ale Yeast After I pitched the yeast, I also added 25 drops of Pectic Enzyme (available from my homebrew store) to try and reduce the cloudiness due to pectin (from the fruit) in the beer. Twenty-five drops was probably overkill since the proprietor of my brew-store told me that about 15 would be okay, but the label indicated 30 drops so...
Log:	I let it sit in the primary for 4 days. I was prepared to add more peach to the secondary but after tasting the sample used for SG readings, I decided it was okay as is. The secondary vessel was a 3 gallon glass carboy. I let it sit in the secondary for 10 days (2 weeks total).
Carbonation:	To carbonate I simply added about 2 oz. of priming sugar, boiled in 1 cup of water and then cooled, before bottling (standard bottle-conditioning).
Tasting:	Bitterness is greater than typical for a fruit beer. The fruitiness is more subtle than typical for a fruit beer. I think those are the reasons I like this brew so much.

Recipe posted 12/07/00.