When I first started brewing I made a very delicoious peach wheat extract beer. I used DME, 10 lbs of pureed peaches, and some peach extract and vanilla. I can't repeat it. I used US05 then. I've tried full grain but it ferments to the point of sourness. Is there any trick to keep sweet peach flavors? I use a lb of lactose in the recipe. How can you sweeten a beer after the fact without compromising it being "beer"? I mean, I don't want to add splenda or anything. But, will the tartness subside with some aging or what?
Potassium sorbate might help along with some unfermentables such as crystal malts and a higher mash temp.
Should I add more fruit with Potassium sorbate after kegging? More crystal malts might be an answer for the future, but how can I sweeten an already finished beer?
First, try to sweeten a sample in your glass with sugar, honey, or juice concentrate, to get the proportions right. Then add potassium sorbate to your keg or carboy, give it a day or so to shut down the yeast; then backsweeten with proportionally appropriate amount of sweetening agent. Then force carbonate. Alternatively, you can add sweetener to taste to each individual glass, in the manner of Berlinner Weiss. This would give the consumer a wide range of options for experimentation.
Personally for my summertime go to beer - a watermelon wheat - I add the juice directly to the leg and then keep it at 40F. No significant fermentation occurs, and the beer retains that sweetness.
I added a lot of peach nectar into the keg and keeping it cold. Also some Potassium sorbate. It tastes just right now. Hopefully, as long as I keep it cold...it will stick with this flavor.
