northerntimber

Recipes 

Good Evening Everyone,
Just a couple of quick questions....

I have a pear tree growing and producing fruit in my yard (just moved into the house this June) and was curious about using the fresh pears in a sour...

The question I have is if I pick the pears now & cut them up or puree them, can I freeze them until use sometime within the next 8 months?

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Chris

Oldsock

Recipes 

I could see pears working really well in a sour (although I've never tried one). I freeze most of the fruit I use, so that should be fine as well (although with pears my instinct would be to juice them and freeze the juice so you don't have to deal with all of that puree when you are racking).

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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).

ReverseApacheMaster

Recipes 

The puree is a real mess when you siphon. It is very fibrous. It will clog up the racking cane and if you bottle, your bottling wand.

I would also encourage you to juice them.

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northerntimber

Recipes 

Thanks for the responses...I now have a follow-up question before I prepare the pears or juice for the freezer.

1. Should I juice the pears now and freeze the juice or cut the pears up now and juice the pears when I get ready to add to secondary fermentation?

2. If I juice now, I have seen a couple different ways to juice...one is to run the fruit through a juicer (which I don't have currently) or the other is to cut the fruit up, place in a stock pot with a small amount of water (at least a cup) and bring up to a boil very slowly - once at a boil, boil for 5 minutes, then cool and strain, then freeze. Do you see any issues with the second method?

Thanks again,
Chris

Oldsock

Recipes 

I'd avoid heating if you can (it really doesn't matter how slowly you heat). How about pureeing in a super-clean food processor then straining through cheesecloth?

__________________
Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).