Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Peach Beer On The Fly

The fruit itself carries a history older and stranger than most countries. Peaches originated in China, cultivated since the earliest roots of Chinese civilization, long before modern humanity figured out how to ruin perfectly good fruit with low-fat yogurt marketing campaigns. Spanish explorers eventually hauled peaches into the Americas during the 16th century, and from there the fruit wandered outward into England and France, where Queen Victoria reportedly enjoyed fresh peaches wrapped delicately in elegant cotton napkins because apparently royalty also understood the sacred danger of peach juice annihilating your sleeves.

Meanwhile, Indigenous tribes across North America helped spread peach trees across the continent the old-fashioned way: carrying seeds during travel and planting them along the journey, quietly scattering orchards into the future like botanical graffiti.

Today peaches rank as America’s third most popular fruit, which feels suspiciously low considering a truly ripe peach can briefly restore your faith in existence itself.

And nowhere do peaches hit harder than Washington state, where the correct way to eat one is standing outdoors beside a fruit stand somewhere east of the mountains, the peach still warm from the afternoon sun like it’s been softly charging in solar glory all day. Dust off the fuzz with your shirt, take one bite, and suddenly your hands are sticky, your chin is dripping, and you remember the human body is mostly designed for making glorious seasonal messes.

Of course, Peaks & Pints believes the best way to drink a peach is through beer.

Which is why Peaks & Pints Pilot Program: Peach Beer On The Fly exists — a fuzzy little liquid daydream of orchard sweetness, tart edges, stone-fruit perfume, farmhouse funk, and enough peach-soaked summertime weirdness to make you want to spend the entire afternoon listening to old records while pretending your porch is somehow spiritually located in both Yakima and 1973.

Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Peach Beer On The Fly

Goose Island Halia

7.5% ABV

Literally meaning “remembrance of a loved one” in Hawaiian, Halia was brewed in memory of the dear friend of one of Goose Island Beer Company’s brewers who loved peaches. Peaches, indeed. Halia is a tart, farmhouse ale aged with fifty pounds of peaches per barrel in spent cabernet barrels used to mature the Chicago brewery’s Juliet beer, plus Brettanomyces Claussenii. Flavor is lightly tart, brightly sweet, dry finish, but still quenching. The carefully orchestrated interplay of winey, peachy, sour, and astringent makes it a worthy sipper.

Alesong Stonefruit Symphony

7.3% ABV, 6 IBU

In the summer, orchards around Oregon burst with ripe peaches and nectarines, and it’s this scene of sunshine, fresh air, and voluptuous, juicy stone fruit that Alesong Brewing & Blending sought to capture Stonefruit Symphony. They hand cut the pits from thousands of pounds of ripe, organic peaches and nectarines, added the fruit to two foeders in their cellar and then blended in mature barrels of their golden sour ale to let the flavors meld. The beer they chose to blend in brought its own citrusy and floral qualities from fermentation, perfect aromas to harmonize with stone fruit. The result is a rich and bold fruited sour with a balancing acidity and a floral finish.

Silver City Charming Disarmer Wild Ale with Peach

5.4% ABV, 16 IBU

A disarmer, by definition, is someone opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes. That’s positive. Silver City Brewery’s Charming Disarmer Wild Ale with Peach draws you with her sweet demeanor, but it’s her wild side that captivates. Aged for two years in a barrel that once housed Chardonnay; peaches, wheat, and the vanilla character of the oak are brought together by Brettanomyces, lending a subtle, bright tartness.

Dubuisson Peche Mel Scaldis

8.5% ABV, 16 IBU

Where the strongest Belgian beer and the taste of peaches come together — Brasserie Dubuisson Pêche Mel Scaldis was born as a popular student cocktail. Now, it is a combination of the Scaldis Amber and a peach beer. The natural aromas of the peach extracts mingle well with the hoppy-bitterness of the Scaldis Amber. A sweet initial taste of peaches, soon developing with those characteristic Scaldis yeast flavors, all riding along on a firm body. The impression left is of a balanced fruit beer that tastes full in the mouth, gifting both palate and nose with lingering notes of peach.

Wander Yummy Bits IPA

7% ABV

Wander Brewing Yummy Bits is an extra juicy hazy IPA brewed with Juicy yeast, double dry hopped with Strata and Idaho 7 hops, and fermented with peaches for a heavy sweet peach tea vibe.

Peaks and Pints Pilot Program: Peach Beer On The Fly