Peach Weizenbock and Bozenweiss Raspberry Wheat

I made a batch of The Brew Hut‘s Bozenweiss Raspberry Wheat a couple of weeks ago. The recipe is as follows:

6 lbs. Wheat LME
1 lb. Crystal 10L (Briess)
12 oz. Flaked Wheat
8 oz. Acidulated Malt
1 oz. Tettnanger (60 minutes)
1 oz. Tettnanger (30 minutes)
Safbrew WB-06
ADD RASPBERRY PUREE (3.1 lb. Can) AT “HIGH KRAUSEN” (the second or third day of fermentation). Be sure to sanitize the top of the puree can as well as the can opener before opening the can and adding to the primary.
ADD RASPBERRY FLAVORING (1-4 oz. to taste) INTO THE BOTTLING BUCKET OR KEG.

Lately, I’ve been trying to expand my brewing knowledge (and save a couple of bucks) by devising a recipe I can pitch on to the yeast cake from the prior recipe. Saves money on yeast and challenges me to come up with my own recipes. The general rule for pitching on a previous yeast cake is to do a batch of beer that is stronger and darker. I decided to keep with the fruit theme and came up with a recipe for a Peach Weizenbock. I decided on a whim to use peaches instead of some kind of berry. I used CaraAroma malt to steep to give it a darker color and decided (also on a whim) to use frozen peaches. Because peaches are one of the most subtle fruits, I decided to rack the beer out of the primary on to the peaches in the secondary. There’s some small danger from putting a non-boiled ingredient into the beer at the secondary stage, but I sanitized everything and figured the freezing process killed most bacteria or wild yeasts. Things I learned about working with frozen peaches:

• If you don’t have a funnel, you can make one by cutting the top off of a soda or water bottle.
• When you put frozen peaches into a Cuisinart,what comes out is very similar to Italian ice.
• Italian ice is very difficult to put through a makeshift funnel made with a cut off water bottle.
• Briefly microwaving Italian ice makes it much easier to get through a funnel.
• Three pounds of frozen peaches don’t take up very much room at all in a 6.5 gallon carboy.

Peach Weizenbock in the carboy

I’ll find out in a week or so whether the peach flavor comes through in the finished beer and whether I need to rack it off into a tertiary to clear up the tiny peach chunks.