My first experience with brewing lambic style beers actually happened before I’d tried many of the commercial examples on the market today. The first brew I did was a full-on turbid mash, aged in a wine barrel, fermented with the Wyeast lambic blend. This batch was a full barrel’s worth of fifty gallons and I wasn’t about to leave that to chance, hence the pitch rather than the capture. I’m convinced the product was more authentic than if I’d tried my hand with my coolship. Since this initial brew, I’ve brewed a barrel full of lambic (or in some cases, a style close to it) every year. These barrels sit for 1-2 years before I keg them and blend or add fruit. While I love the base flavor the beer has to offer, adding fruit has been one of my favorite things to experiment with over the last few years. I’ve tried cherries, raspberries, rhubarb, blueberries, and most recently a combination of peaches and nectarines.

As we speak, I’ve just finished conducting a thorough test of the peaches and nectarines keg. This keg received both peaches and nectarines for a combined rate of 3lb/gallon this past August. They have been in the keg since then, which has allowed me to easily rack off a little bit every now and then to see how the flavor is evolving.

A few weeks after the addition of the peaches and nectarines, the fruit flavor was delicious. Strong, pungent notes of both fruit dominated, and I was tempted to just go for it and kick the keg. However, after a few sips I came to terms that my sweet tooth was acting out and that the only reason I was interested was due to the rich sweetness of the fruit, and not as much into the beer. Delicious, but not really something I’d drink a glass of.

Fast forward to November and some friends and I tried another sample. The rich fruit flavors had subsided, and the first impression I got was more of a perfume aroma that I associated with being peachy/nectariney. I was less than thrilled. Often times I have kicked myself for not racking soon enough, and this was one of those times.

Fast forward again to January, and I brought the beer to our hombrew club meeting where it was well received. I mentioned it might have some of those perfumy notes without a lot of fruit flavor… but it was more popular than the Kriek or unblended lambic I had brought. No one mentioned anything about any off flavors.

And slow forward to this week and I found myself tasting it again, along with a few other beers (stay tuned). The perfume notes were gone. This one is going to get bottled for HomebrewCon this summer, as well as limited distribution to family and friends. I’m really happy with how this came out and I’m looking forward to sharing it with anyone who wants to try!

Peaches and ‘Rines

No BeerXML file this time. Recipe: 66% Pils, 33% Raw Wheat. Turbid mashed, long boil, 1lb 10 year old hops. 1 pack Wyeast Lambic blend.

This beer smells great. Light fruit from both peach and nectarine light up the senses, with mild acidity. Verrrrry milk funk, which is what I strive for in my sour/wild beers. Light hay and musty aromas.

The taste is really quite balanced. Mild funk and fruit up front, fruit lingers, finishes light and dry with medium acidity that lingers well into the finish. No need to blend this one down at all.

It looks like the color of straw, light haze from the fruit. I thought about fining it, but decided to keep it the way it is.

Mouthfeel is pleasant and well rounded. Fruit forward and medium body, this beer shifts gears quickly to a medium light pucker of acidity, then finishing on the back of the palate with a light tingle.

Overall, I’m happy with how this beer turned out. Using both peaches and nectarines was inspired by tasting “Same Tree” by Monkish brewing. It was the highlight beer for me at the Culmination festival this past fall in Anchorage. While mine isn’t quite as complex as the Monkish beer (if I recall correctly) it is a good contender, balancing fruit and acidity with light funk quite nicely. I’d like to have a little more brettanomyces character, but I’m thrilled with the way its currently tasting. I get more of the nectarine flavors than I do peaches, and I attribute that to the lack of flavor in the ripened-in-the-trailer peaches we get imported way up here. Still, really good!