Need help with pear cider.

Like all worthy quests this one is for a girl. I have a friend that had a pear cider by Ace cider company. I would really like to recreate it but I can not find it anywhere to try it. So first any help with the style of this would be helpful.

Also I have never made a cider other than pitching yeast in Apple juice with sugar. The only extra equipment, and supplies I have with exception to everything for all grain brewing is, degassing whip, all the various chemicals for making skeeter pee.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

Perry making is a somewhat different animal than cider making. My experience with it has been mixed, but it's something I'd like to try more of. This is a really good place to pick up some basic information.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/perry.htm

Bottlebomber, thanks for that page. It has some great info. But I'm not at a stage where I can use real fruit unfortunately.

I'm thinking of getting a pear concentrate wine base, I have read that most commercial varieties of pear cider has apple juice in it also. So I was thinking of adding some of it unless they only do it for cost cutting. Here is the Juice I am thinking of using.

http://stores.homebrewproshoppe.com/-strse-675/VH-Pear-Wine-Base/Detail.bok?category=

What do you guys and gals think? If I only add water to this to make 5 gallons do you have any idea what the OG will be? I would think pretty high as it's for wine but I really don't know.

Thanks,
Marcus

What you are planning on doing in making fruit wine, not cider. You will add that can to 4 gallons of water and 5 lbs of sugar, or whatever the recipe calls for. That can alone would probably only make it to 1.030 or less for 5 gallons but I don't know off hand. There are other things you'll need for doing that too, so make sure you have everything you need. Probably wine conditioner, potassium sorbate, acid blend, and I would get some pear flavoring to add before bottling.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/catalog/product/gallery/id/4715/image/6887/

Yes, here is a link to a picture of the back of that can. There is much more needed than just what's there.

Thanks Bottlebomber.

The can does say it is perfect for wine or cider. But I only see the directions for wine. I'm only shooting for 6-7% abv.
I found this flavoring http://www.amazon.com/All-Star-Extracts-Pear-Flavor/dp/B00792SG3K/ref=sr_1_fed0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355111102&sr=8-2&keywords=pear+syrup will it work? I never have considered using flavoring syrup, does it give good flavor compered to using all fruit?

I'm thinking now of using the can plus 7 pounds of sugar and use the flavoring for a 5 gallon batch. I do want to serve this carbonated so I won't stabilize it. I was thinking of using us-04 for the yeast because I have read the esters compliment the fruit flavor of ciders. I may be wrong but this seems a bigger PITA and double the cost of making beer.

Thank you so much for the help!

Also unless I'm missing something that recipe calling for 12 pounds of sugar seems way off. according to beer smith 12 pounds of sugar in 5 gallons gives 18% without any sugars from the can.

My software gives me 1.100 for 12 lbs of sugar. That would give you 13% without the concentrate. With the concentrate it may be 16% or something, but with a sweet wine yeast it would conk out around 12-13% giving you some residual sweetness. You want it carbonated. That means you will either ferment it dry, then prime and bottle. Or you can back sweeten, carb, and bottle pasteurize so they don't explode.

And in my opinion, making wine and cider is many times the pain as making beer. Everything takes 10 times as long, so the stakes are much higher.

I ended up making this with 5 pounds of sugar, and the can of concentrate. I transferred it to secondary last night and it tasted great! the pear flavor is much better than I thought. I used us-04 and ended up with a O.G. of 1.002. not to dry, not too sweet. I will be bottling this one week from today and cant wait for it to be carbed up and cold.

Cool, glad if worked out for you.

Jeepaholic said:

I ended up making this with 5 pounds of sugar, and the can of concentrate. I transferred it to secondary last night and it tasted great! the pear flavor is much better than I thought. I used us-04 and ended up with a O.G. of 1.002. not to dry, not too sweet. I will be bottling this one week from today and cant wait for it to be carbed up and cold.

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Can you give me your recipe/ process notes for your pear cider??!! I would like to make one this week.

Shansta said:

Can you give me your recipe/ process notes for your pear cider??!! I would like to make one this week.

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No problem, I used the can of pear juice concentrate shown earlier in the thread. 5 pounds of sugar and US-04 yeast. Keep it at about 72 degrees. It was sweet enough for me so all I added at bottling was 4 ounces of table sugar and half a bottle of pear flavoring that is also has a link earlier in the thread to Amazon.

One note, yeast nutrient is very important. I after 2 days of pitching my yeast nothing was going on. I added a dose of nutrient and energizer and in less than a hour it was going ape **** with 3" of krassen.

Marcus