gabrielfa

Recipes 

Hello all, my name is Chris and I need some help. I come to you humbly and request that you pretend i'm the dumbest person alive...so speak real slow.
I'll give you the back story to show that i am serious about this little endeavour.
My fishing buddy and I talked about making ciders and such over the years and had seen plenty of wild apple trees in our muskie fishing time on the small rivers of west virginia.
What got us motivated were two extremely prolific pear trees (bosks, we think) we found. Not kidding, some these pears are as big as a grape fruit and there was no end to the amount growing. We, in the end, picked about 12 bushells or so.
We toyed with different ideas for pressing and I designed and built a rather impressive press out of 5 2x4 and some off the shelf hardware with a few custom welded pieces and an afternoon of assembly.(pics available if you are interested). For the pre processing we use a wood chipper (you read that right)
So, we did our first trial pressing and now have in the ball park of 4 gallons of Pear juice (we still have like 10 bushells left)

Heres what we have: A local wine store told we needed this, this and this. but we were kinda fuzzy on the process.
Acid blend (for stopping browning?)
Potassium Sorbate (for stopping process at the end, right?)
Yeast Nutrient
Wine tannin
Potassium Metbisulphite (to take in the event of nuclear holocaust?)
Pectic Enzyme
4 Packets of Premier Cuvee Yeast
a few new 2.5 gallon buckets w/ lids
Cheapy airlocks
4 gallons of fresh pear juice ran through nylon mesh

Here's what we want: A high ABV with a sweetish taste. a recipe that doesn't require huge knowledge because this is our first time around. A recipe/process that is a good base is all we're looking for right now.
Can someone please help us out? Just remember, pretend i'm the dumbest person around!

Thanks
Chris

Aleforge

Recipes 

This post is full of awesomeness, very fun read!

I am no expert of ciders, but what you put down is pretty much correct. I am sure some experts will chime in but wanted to give you some kind of support.

If you used fresh pressed fruit, which you are, some will suggest pasteurizing it to keep the nasties out.

It’s also tough to get a high ABV cider that isn't dry as bones. If your shooting for something around 6-7% it’s not too much of a problem, just make sure you pick the correct yeast. Although I guess you could back sweeten in the end, either using artificial sweetners (yuck) or by killing off the yeast, but then that depends on if you want this sparkling or not?

__________________
PRIMARY - Irish Red
PRIMARY - Apple Bee Cider
PRIMARY - Dunkelweizen
PRIMARY - Orange Blossom Mead

"A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes." -- Mahatma Gandhi

Pogo

Recipes 

If you are going to be using the squeezed, filtered, juice, without the peels and pulp of the pears, I'd recommend just following the the recipe for making Apfelwein, found on the first page of the "Man, I love Apfelwein" thread, in the wine making forum of this site.

Just substitute your pear juice where the recipe calls for apple juice!

For more details and options, simply keep reading more pages of that thread.

Very simple and easy, the perfect recipe/project for beginners! You could call your version of it "Pear-wein"!

Otherwise, go to The Winemaking Home Page's recipe section, and pick a recipe that suits your fancy.

BTW - Go ahead a post some pics of that fruit press of yours.

Pogo