We've worked with Texas Hill Country peaches at Jester King for a long time. It might be our favorite local fruit to work with. We're biased, but we'd put Hill Country peaches up against any peaches in the world in terms of flavor and aroma. After using them for the better part of a decade to make beer, we thought to ourselves, "What if we made wine from Hill Country Peaches?"
Our alcohol license doesn't currently let us make wine, so we did a co-fermentation of 2020 Hill Country peaches and unfermented beer (wort). We purchased several hundred pounds of freshly harvested peaches from Fredericksburg, Texas in July, let them reach their peak ripeness, processed them by hand at Jester King by removing the pits then pureeing the rest of the fruit (including the peach skins), then added the fruit to a stainless steel fermenter. We pitched our JK mixed culture and let the peaches ferment for a few days. We then added fresh wort to the mix, and let the co-fermentation ferment to total dryness. We then racked the peach wine/beer hybrid to our bottling tank, added priming sugar, and packaged it in 750ml bottles. The peach wine/beer then 100% naturally refermented without filtration, pasteurization, or the addition of any preservatives. 4.1% alcohol by volume. Bottled in August.
We're very pleased with the results of this co-fermentation experiment! The peach wine/beer simultaneously captures the explosive flavor/aroma of the Hill Country peaches, while taking the character of the fruit in new and exciting directions in the way that only wild fermentation with native yeast can do.
Farmhouse Ale Co-Fermented with Texas Hill Country Peaches goes onsale today (9/21/20) at Noon. Our experiment was fairly small, so we only have 300 bottles available (750ml/$24) with a one bottle limit. You may order online today at Noon central through this link: https://www.toasttab.com/jesterkingbrewery/v3. To visit our beautiful Hill Country setting here at Jester King, please make a reservation! https://www.exploretock.com/jesterkingbrewery
Artwork by Joshua Cockrell and Katie Ross
Photography by Granger Coats
