Last year when my mother-in-law canned some of our backyard pears, she for some reason decided to can some of the juice (actually nectar) as well. Since we have absolutely no use for half-pint jars of pear nectar, I snuck it out the back door and decided to make something useful out of it. I started with:
5 pints home canned pear nectar
1 can Welch's white grape juice concentrate
1 cup sugar
1 sachet Red Star Montrachet
Edit: Oh yeah, and water to make up 1 gallon. Gotta give the yeast some chance at survival in all that sugar...
Well after a few weeks in the primary, it was amber colored, cloudy, and tasted like Nyquil. Actually almost exactly like Nyquil. So I racked it to secondary and let it sit a while. A few weeks later I added some pectic enzyme (yes I know it's supposed to go in the primary, but I didn't have any then), potassium sorbate, and acid blend, and waited. Meanwhile I made up a gallon batch of apfelwein. After some more time in the secondary the pears had mellowed from Nyquil down to rocket fuel with some fruity notes.
So today I had some time to kill, so I blended the pear rocket fuel and the apfelwein together equally. It's now starting to taste pretty good, and my eyes don't cross anymore when I sample it. I think I'm on to something here...
The first gallon turned out a beautiful clear amber color--not like any wine I've ever seen. I'm not that adept with the siphon, so the second gallon has to re-settle. So I bottled the first gallon into some 187ml bottles for Christmas gifts. Hopefully by then it will have morphed from rocket fuel into something more suitable for an Indy car.
I've decided to name it Pfearwein. Pronounce it any way you want.
Before anybody asks, no I didn't take any hydrometer readings. But considering how much sugar was in the original nectar, and I added some more, if the yeast didn't die just from the first bite then it's probably potent enough to strip paint.
5 pints home canned pear nectar
1 can Welch's white grape juice concentrate
1 cup sugar
1 sachet Red Star Montrachet
Edit: Oh yeah, and water to make up 1 gallon. Gotta give the yeast some chance at survival in all that sugar...
Well after a few weeks in the primary, it was amber colored, cloudy, and tasted like Nyquil. Actually almost exactly like Nyquil. So I racked it to secondary and let it sit a while. A few weeks later I added some pectic enzyme (yes I know it's supposed to go in the primary, but I didn't have any then), potassium sorbate, and acid blend, and waited. Meanwhile I made up a gallon batch of apfelwein. After some more time in the secondary the pears had mellowed from Nyquil down to rocket fuel with some fruity notes.
So today I had some time to kill, so I blended the pear rocket fuel and the apfelwein together equally. It's now starting to taste pretty good, and my eyes don't cross anymore when I sample it. I think I'm on to something here...
The first gallon turned out a beautiful clear amber color--not like any wine I've ever seen. I'm not that adept with the siphon, so the second gallon has to re-settle. So I bottled the first gallon into some 187ml bottles for Christmas gifts. Hopefully by then it will have morphed from rocket fuel into something more suitable for an Indy car.
I've decided to name it Pfearwein. Pronounce it any way you want.
Before anybody asks, no I didn't take any hydrometer readings. But considering how much sugar was in the original nectar, and I added some more, if the yeast didn't die just from the first bite then it's probably potent enough to strip paint.