Questions about making pear cider.

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nmistry73

nmistry73

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I have a pear tree with an abundance of fruit, so I have been researching pear cider / perry recipes. The pears are green and firm with a slight sweetness to them. Unfortunately they are a bit too fibrous for eating. Being a beer brewer, I thought that making cider may be a fun experiment.

Came across many great posts here and on other sites, but after all my research I still Have a few questions before i undertake my inaugural batch.

Wild yeast, is it worth trying to ferment with, or am i just asking for trouble? What would be a suitable temperature range for fermenting w/ wild yeast? Can I use the Wyeast yeast nutrient that I use for my beer?

In general how long does cider keep? I am planning on keging / force carbonating mine.

Should I use pectic enzyme?

Checked the gravity by pressing a few pears and got 1.042-1.044. Is that a good starting point or should i bump up my OG to > 1.055 with something like honey or sugar?

I read somewhere that too much carbonation can lead to problems w/ pear cider / perry. Is this true?

Thanks in advance!
 
I'm no expert, but if I were you, I would go with a sound standard cider recipe but use pears instead of apples. You can buy bags of fruit all year round, but you only get one crop a year from a tree, and it'd be a shame if it spoiled! I havn't made pear but i've made Strawberry, Elderflower and Apple, so I've got a vague idea.

Like all things, cider gets better with age - unless it's a kit cider, then it gets worse with age. Plastic kegs arn't great for flavour whereas green/brown bottles are, so try and get some bottled if possible. That way you can chill it fast too, and cider tastes great chilled.

Yeast nutrient - I use it with Montrachet. Dunno if it makes a difference to be honest. hahah.

As for OG, you might want to consider that cider really blows your head off after about 6.5%, but fortunately cider can be very sweet and still taste good so you can afford to cut it off. I wouldn't go over 5.5% personally, if you want something that you'd drink in pint form. I've had one too many nights on Scrumpy and Green Goblin, and it's vicious.
 
I am brewing up a perry soon as well, I have to admit that since I cant get perry pears Im a bit worried about the pear flavor standing up to fermentation, so I plan on using a yeast that gives off a pear ester WY1388

Traditional perry pears are inedible and hard, whereas Im assuming you have table pears that are sweet and soft, If you can get enough juice why not try fermenting different types

eg.

1 x wild fermentation
1 x clean ale/wine yeast
1 x fruity yeast ie 1388

by experimenting a bit you can get a better idea what works and go with that next year!
 
Over here we have a lot of cider that's fermented twice - once with apples, then pears added for flavour. Might be worth considering!
 
nmistry73 said:
I have a pear tree with an abundance of fruit, so I have been researching pear cider / perry recipes. The pears are green and firm with a slight sweetness to them. Unfortunately they are a bit too fibrous for eating. Being a beer brewer, I thought that making cider may be a fun experiment.

Came across many great posts here and on other sites, but after all my research I still Have a few questions before i undertake my inaugural batch.

Wild yeast, is it worth trying to ferment with, or am i just asking for trouble? What would be a suitable temperature range for fermenting w/ wild yeast? Can I use the Wyeast yeast nutrient that I use for my beer?

In general how long does cider keep? I am planning on keging / force carbonating mine.

Should I use pectic enzyme?

Checked the gravity by pressing a few pears and got 1.042-1.044. Is that a good starting point or should i bump up my OG to > 1.055 with something like honey or sugar?

I read somewhere that too much carbonation can lead to problems w/ pear cider / perry. Is this true?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

I think I'd go with a tried & true yeast instead of trying a wild yeast on my 1st perry. Certainly nothing wrong with trying a wild fermentation, but I'd save that for a 1 gallon test batch. Depending on what you want for your end product, either a lower ABV wine yeast, or an ale yeast. Same goes for your OG: if you want more alcohol, add sugar/honey. Honey takes a bit longer than sugar to ferment & age, so that's something else to consider. Hope that helps. Regards, GF.
 
I am in the exact same boat as you nmistry73. I have two pear trees of different variety in my back yard. The branches of the trees are touching the ground they have so many pears! Being in Louisiana's humid climate the pear's are very juicy. Ive contemplated all summer long about what to do with this plethora of fruit and making my first perry seems the best answer. I'm completley "winging" this cider making process and all information has come off the internet. Mostly from this site.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/perry.htm

Ill be using Fleischmann's baking yeast for fermentation because thats all i can find around here. Also, I'm going to chop the pears and run them through a juicer to get the pulp. Im using my grandmother's Ph tester for her swimming pool to test Ph. I plan to get started on this process in 3 or 4 days.
 
At the risk of sounding like a dick - Perry is made from Perry Pears. Anything else is Pear Cider - same as Champagne and Sparkling White Wine. I live 30 miles from Herefordshire where they make a lot of it, so I bloody love the stuff. :)
 
No offense takin Rob. I'm completley new to this brew jargin so please forgive any ignorance on my part. Ive never even drank cider so this ignorance may stretch pretty far. I picked about 20 more pears off one of the trees today. Will pick 20-30 more tomorrow and will hopefuly start pressing in three or four days. I already have 10 pears that are on the verge of being too ripe so i may just throw them out.

I'm thinking I want to make a dry cider because it seems easiest to make. Since this is my first try at cider making I want it to be painless and worry free as possible.
 
The newest edition of Ben Watson's book on cider has a section on pears. He says that pressing pears is a little more challenging then pressing apples - because of the fibrous nature mentioned in the OP. He suggests using rice hulls, as some of us do when mashing wheat malt.

If you haven't read his book, its worthwhile, its been my bedtime reading for the past week :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881508195/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mermaid said:
Can one actually get "perry" pears in the States?
Click to expand...

no, they only grow around herefordshire/east wales, it's to do with the climate. at least it's good for something :)

we had a Magners Cider advert a while ago that boasted that "Other pear ciders are apple flavoured with pear, and ours is made entirely from pears. we don't lie." You just want to ring their necks and scream YOU'RE MAKING LOW QUALITY PERRY!
 
I have no access to campden tablets.

Would it be ok to peel the pears then pulp and press with no tablets?
 

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