Loosely based on this recipe: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f72/liberty-peach-berliner-weisse-sour-mash-351918/

07/15/2014 – Mash Day

5 lbs – 2-Row Malt
4 lbs – Red Wheat Malt

2.2 Gal – Strike water at 167 degrees F

Mashed at 151 degrees F for 1 hr

Cooled to 110 degrees F in an ice bath and by adding ice cubes to the mash

Added 1 lb of unmilled 2-row to inoculate and put in the electric smoker at 110 degrees F for 72 hrs.

07/19/2014 – Brew Day

The least foul-smelling sour mash I’ve done yet.  This mash had a larger grain bill than the last two so it was a fair amount drier given my limited mash volume in the only pot that will fit in the electric smoker.  A layer of grain had floated to the surface and mostly dried.  The saran wrap that I had covered the mash with was pushed up and away from the sides of the pot.  There didn’t seem to be anything growing on the top at all, so I speculate that the layer of grain at the top protected the mash from O2, and for some reason didn’t grow anything.  Maybe a higher grain to water ratio is a benefit for sour mashes.

Dumped the whole mash into another pot with a grain bag in it and pulled the bag out to remove most of the mash liquid.  Sparged by heating 3 gal of water to 170 degrees F and dunking the grain bag in the water for a few minutes, then strained in a colander.

0.5 oz  – German Hallertauer hop pellets (added after sparge on the way to boil)
0.5 tsp – Yeast nutrient (15 min)
1 tsp – Irish Moss (15 min)
1 smack pack of Wyeast 1056

Shook to aerate

O.G.: 1.043, 10.6 degrees Brix

Bought fresh peaches from Cooper Farms in Fairfield, TX.  Washed sliced and froze on a rack, then vacuum sealed in 1 lb bags and back in the freezer.  On brew day, thawed 5 lbs of peach slices and mashed the slices into a pulp in the bag.  Cut the bags open and emptied them into a sanitized bucket.  Added 1 tsp of pectic enzyme and stirred it in.  Let it set at room temp overnight for enzyme to work.

07/20/2014 – Added peaches to primary

5 lbs – Peaches (primary)
5 lbs – Peaches (secondary)

Possibly helpful fruit websites:

http://brewwiki.com/index.php/Fruit
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/319-brewing-with-fruit-techniques
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/sugar.asp

08/05/2014 – Racked to secondary

Added another 5 lbs of peaches treated the same way as those added to primary

The extra sugar from the peaches and the pretty full carboy resulted in several eruptions of peaches.  Surprisingly active for a secondary.  In fact it exploded!!!  Twice!!!

Let sit until very clear, though still very fluffy trub.

11/22/2014 – Kegged

Smells and tastes amazing.  Far better than I expected. Yea!

Kegged just the clear portion to ensure that at least some of the batch is wonderful.

For the fluffy bits, there is surely lots of good beer in there… the question is how to get it out and clear.  The plan is to rack off the clear beer into a keg, then carefully pour the fluff and pulp through a sanitized nylon grain bag and into a gallon jug or two to resettle, hopefully much more densely now that the bulk of the peach pulp will be strained out.  High risk of oxidation in this process, hence separating from the main batch.

F.G.: 1.004, 5.2 degrees Brix

Throughout the process, fermentable peaches were added, so using the O.G. of the original wort would not account for the sugar in the peaches when calculating the ABV.  To account for the average fermentable sugars in raw peaches, I’m using a figure of 8 grams of fermentable sugar per 100 g of peach. Given that I used 10 lbs of peaches throughout the process, that yields 0.8 lbs of sugar.  In 5.25 gal of wort, 0.8 lbs of sugar should yield an additional 7 gravity points.  That means the new adjusted O.G. is 1.050

Adjusted ABV: 6%

07/19/2015 – Kegged the oxidation-prone bit