Tons of pears from our pear tree.. How to turn into pear cider?

How much of a pain would it be to juice and turn them into cider? They are super hard pears also. Just the type of pear it is.

Its called Perry. A quick search may come up with some info for you. I too have a pear tree, put I let them sit to long and they rotted this year.

You should Pick them about a week before using them. Let them sit in a basket to soften, Then they will need to be mashed/chopped and pressed. 10-12 Lbs pears per gallon of juice.

I have made Perry before and KKetterer is accurate. Let the pears ripen to a point to where they are sweet (sugars), and then juice them. You can press them or juice them, but you wanted to boil the juice (to pasteurize and rid of bacteria and wild yeasts) and pitch your own yeast into them, unless of course you are feeling adventurous and want to go the route of spontaneous fermentation.

It's a traditional drink and quite good; I like to make a mix of cider and perry which has turned out well in the past.

Good luck; juicing is a rather laborious effort.

I also have have a bunch of pears (maybe 30-40 lbs) this year that I picked exactly a week ago. They have been sitting at room temp since to soften, however, they are still quite hard and I think I might let them sit for a bit longer. By the way, our best guess is that they are comice pears.

We are hoping to turn them into perry. Anyone else have thoughts on boiling? Ive been doing some reading through the forum and read some views for and against boiling. I've also read that you want to juice the pears as absolutely quick as possible after mashing the pears to prevent oxidation. On the other hand, I've also read where some people let their pears sit for a day before juicing after mashing.

If anybody has any input on these points i would greatly appreciate it. I'm also looking for some recommendations on yeast types and SG levels. I'm pretty new to home-brewing so feel free to get as overly-detailed as you would like, lol.

HopsyTurvy said:

We are hoping to turn them into perry. Anyone else have thoughts on boiling? Ive been doing some reading through the forum and read some views for and against boiling.

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I haven't done any fruit beverages yet but I plan on doing a cider here pretty quick. There is a supply of unpasteurized cider close to where I live. I don't want to boil it so I was thinking about using a campden tablet to kill any unwanted bacteria.

BostonRogue said:

boil the juice (to pasteurize and rid of bacteria and wild yeasts) and pitch your own yeast into them

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If you boil the juice, you'll set the pectins & your cider/peary will likely never clear. No need when you have campden tablets, just use 1 tab (crushed & mixed with a little water) per gallon & stir well. Wait 12 hrs & pitch your yeast, no worries. A dose of pectic enzyme will help too. Regards, GF.

I have considered going the campden tablet route. I think this is what I will probably end up doing. I'm just a bit torn on using campden cuz I was reading in the biggest sticky on the cider forum that he experienced a taste change with campden tablets vs without.

Is there any other way to rid yourself of unwanted bacteria and wild yeast in unpasteurized juice though besides boiling or campden tabs?

Also, when I was at my local home-brewers store the other day and talking to an employee there about yeast he was really pushing hard for me to use wine yeast instead of an ale yeast saying that the ale yeasts cant really handle the sugars in fruit and that he hasn't had any success in using ale yeasts with fruit. Any thoughts?

HopsyTurvy said:

I have considered going the campden tablet route. I think this is what I will probably end up doing. I'm just a bit torn on using campden cuz I was reading in the biggest sticky on the cider forum that he experienced a taste change with campden tablets vs without.

Is there any other way to rid yourself of unwanted bacteria and wild yeast in unpasteurized juice though besides boiling or campden tabs?

Also, when I was at my local home-brewers store the other day and talking to an employee there about yeast he was really pushing hard for me to use wine yeast instead of an ale yeast saying that the ale yeasts cant really handle the sugars in fruit and that he hasn't had any success in using ale yeasts with fruit. Any thoughts?

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I don't know about cider changing taste but that's what most wine makers use.

There is also Potassium Metabisulphite and Sodium Metabisulphite, but campden tablets are made from those. They produce a sulfur smell but it's supposed to go away.

I was planning on using a champagne yeast. I'm not sure about not being able to use ale yeast. Maybe he put it in with the campden tablet's?

77bawls said:

I'm not sure about not being able to use ale yeast. Maybe he put it in with the campden tablet's?

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I ended up using campden tablets. If you put the yeast you intend on using in at the same time as the ground up campden tablets you would kill your yeast and be left with a bucket of pear juice sitting in your closet becoming nothing more then pear juice for months. I went ahead and used the ale yeast Safale S-04 instead of wine or champagne yeast. So we will see. I'll be racking it for the first time here in a couple days or so I think.

I have a 3 gal carboy im going to be racking into but only have about 2.7 gal of juice at the moment. Any ideas on what I should use to bring the volume up a bit. I REALLY want to stay away from store bought juice or cider, have no more pears, and don't have access to any apple or pear farms near by. I was thinking maybe boiling water with organic honey and maybe with some roasted pumpkin seeds then adding that after it cools back to room temp. Im just winging it hear though and don't really know, any ideas?

Just for those who are following this thread and still wondering. I extracted fermentables from my apples by cooking the apples at 170F for about an hour. I raised the temp. quickly to 210 or so and then dropped it. The boiling does not make it so that your cider will never clear. I used a bit of pectic enzyme in my secondary and my cider is crystal clear now... It only took a couple weeks.

why use the damn chemicals? rinse 'em off chop 'em up, juice 'em- toss in some yeast and let 'er rip... unless you are afraid of pestisides- in that case I'd throw them them out- otherwise who cares? some natural yeasts and bacteria is good for the brew... the alcohol will kill off anything harmful... if you are gonna use campden tablets or any chemical additives you might as well buy store-bought cr ap cider...

ajbram said:

Just for those who are following this thread and still wondering. I extracted fermentables from my apples by cooking the apples at 170F for about an hour. I raised the temp. quickly to 210 or so and then dropped it.

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Huh? Why would heating apples extract fermentables? You aren't making beer out of starches.....

Usually, cooking apples just turns them into a sticky applesauce mush - which is a pain in the rear end to strain out....

Stick to proven methods... Grate the fruit into mush and press or sqeeze it out.... I hand squeezed 10 gallons of pear juice out of pears by grinding them into mush and using a paint strainer bag in 2010... It was a lot of work - but it works if you only have a few gallons...

Next - Pears don't have pectin in them like apples do.... Trust me... Try to make pear jelly by boiling pear juice and pears.... All you get is boiled down juice.... It never sets... I suppose you could use Pectic enzyme if you are suspicious... and it won't hurt anything...

Yeast wise - I agree on the wine yeast... My own batch of Ornamental Pear Perry with ale yeast has a really weird beer smell... I will be using some sort of good White wine yeast whenever I do my next batch of Perry...

Then - on "Chemicals"... Unless you are after a fine batch of sweaty-socks smelling Pear vinegar... Use sulphite.. It's proven.. It's ancient.... It's been in regular use making wine before the Romans... and it's a lot easier to crush up a tablet than to figure out how many grams of Sulphur you need to burn inside your carboy....

Best of luck with your Perry!

Thanks

not that I really have anything against using "chemicals" in cider or mead, but Ive done 4 batches of cider (w/ wild yeast) and maybe 8-10 different meads/ melomels without campden or sorbate or anything else except some yeast nutrient and energizer. And haven't yet had a bad batch...