Pear Wine - Help needed

[silverbullet07]

I am going to attempt to make my first batch of wine and it will be a fruit wine. I have a seckel pear tree that I did my first picking last night. I have 30lbs so far, with probable 20 lbs or so more on the tree. seckel pears are super sweet and juicy.

Would anyone mind giving me some guidance on my first batch? Any recommendations on the process and any recipe that may be good.


I have found a couple.

https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-make-pear-wine/https://homebrewanswers.com/pear-wine-recipe/
I bought the North Mountain Supply 3 Gallon Wine From Fruit Kit - With Glass Carboy. It seemed to have most of the items I seemed to need. So my first batch will be 3 lbs.


How is the best way to process the fruit? My thoughts were to cut up, remove core and seed. Insert into mesh bag in fermenting bucket and mash and press all the pears in bag. Are there better ways? I've seen some using blender, Adding hot water and using immersion blender.

For how many pears to use, Do I just follow the recipe and use lbs of pears to water or should I use more pears and less water?

I know I will have lots of questions during this process. Any one that willing to help would be appreciated.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I made pear cider this year, or actually a perry. It took about 18 lb of pears to produce 1 lb of juice with my juicer. But it makes a fine cider. About 7% ABV

Also, be aware that pears have a residual sugar in them that cannot be fermented. My perry is suprisingly sweet

 

[jtratcliff]

I've been tinkering w/ fruit wines lately... Not an expert at all... just couple batches under my belt...

I think I used 3 lbs /gallon for my pear wine about 3 yrs ago... I believe I just quartered them w/out removing cores. I didn't add any tannin, acid or yeast nutrient... just pitched a white wine yeast.

It came out a bit thin in body but tasted OK... You might want to throw in a couple handfuls of raisins or perhaps some banana to add body... My latest batch of loquat wine is shaping up nicely and I used raisins ...

Maybe @Yooper can chime in here... She's one of the resident winemaking experts... I have 1 gallon of her rhubarb wine recipe clearing right now..

 

[silverbullet07]

I found this recipe that does look pretty good. https://eckraus.com/content/pearwine.pdf?_ga=2.188900075.170972832.1598454755-1840056799.1598454755

 

[jtratcliff]

also this thread: Pear wine

 

[silverbullet07]

I've been tinkering w/ fruit wines lately... Not an expert at all... just couple batches under my belt...

I think I used 3 lbs /gallon for my pear wine about 3 yrs ago... I believe I just quartered them w/out removing cores. I didn't add any tannin, acid or yeast nutrient... just pitched a white wine yeast.

It came out a bit thin in body but tasted OK... You might want to throw in a couple handfuls of raisins or perhaps some banana to add body... My latest batch of loquat wine is shaping up nicely and I used raisins ...

Maybe @Yooper can chime in here... She's one of the resident winemaking experts... I have 1 gallon of her rhubarb wine recipe clearing right now..

Thanks for the information and the link you posted below. Good information. I think I will mash all the pears I can and use straight with no water. I'll keep reading. Thanks Again

 

[Traftas]

I am going to attempt to make my first batch of wine and it will be a fruit wine. I have a seckel pear tree that I did my first picking last night. I have 30lbs so far, with probable 20 lbs or so more on the tree. seckel pears are super sweet and juicy.

Would anyone mind giving me some guidance on my first batch? Any recommendations on the process and any recipe that may be good.


I have found a couple.

https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-make-pear-wine/https://homebrewanswers.com/pear-wine-recipe/
I bought the North Mountain Supply 3 Gallon Wine From Fruit Kit - With Glass Carboy. It seemed to have most of the items I seemed to need. So my first batch will be 3 lbs.


How is the best way to process the fruit? My thoughts were to cut up, remove core and seed. Insert into mesh bag in fermenting bucket and mash and press all the pears in bag. Are there better ways? I've seen some using blender, Adding hot water and using immersion blender.

For how many pears to use, Do I just follow the recipe and use lbs of pears to water or should I use more pears and less water?

I know I will have lots of questions during this process. Any one that willing to help would be appreciated.


View attachment 695626View attachment 695626

I am going to attempt to make my first batch of wine and it will be a fruit wine. I have a seckel pear tree that I did my first picking last night. I have 30lbs so far, with probable 20 lbs or so more on the tree. seckel pears are super sweet and juicy.

Would anyone mind giving me some guidance on my first batch? Any recommendations on the process and any recipe that may be good.


I have found a couple.

https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-make-pear-wine/https://homebrewanswers.com/pear-wine-recipe/
I bought the North Mountain Supply 3 Gallon Wine From Fruit Kit - With Glass Carboy. It seemed to have most of the items I seemed to need. So my first batch will be 3 lbs.


How is the best way to process the fruit? My thoughts were to cut up, remove core and seed. Insert into mesh bag in fermenting bucket and mash and press all the pears in bag. Are there better ways? I've seen some using blender, Adding hot water and using immersion blender.

For how many pears to use, Do I just follow the recipe and use lbs of pears to water or should I use more pears and less water?

I know I will have lots of questions during this process. Any one that willing to help would be appreciated.


View attachment 695626View attachment 695626

I have used this recipe and scaled it depending on the volume of my annual pear harvest. I use my fruit crusher to crush my pears and then put them into a fermentation bucket for primary fermentation. Pear Wine Recipe

 

[Raptor99]

I have made pear wine the past two years. Here's what I have learned so far:

I started with 3 lbs. of pears per gallon, but there wasn't much pear flavor in the wine. So now I am up to 6 lbs./gallon. But many pear cider recipes call for 20 lbs. of pears per gallon with no water. So if you take this approach I'd be interested to hear how it comes out.

I remove the seeds because they can introduce off flavors. But you can leave the skins on. I wash and core my pears, then chop them up and freeze them for a few days. That helps to break down the fruit fiber. After I thaw them, I mash them with a potato masher (I don't have a fruit grinder). I put the pear mash in a mesh bag in my primary fermentation bucket for the first few days.

Here is my current recipe for one gallon:
6 lbs. ripe chopped pears
1 c. chopped golden raisins
organic sugar to bring sugar level to Brix 19.5 (SG 1.08) = potential ABV of 11%
1 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. yeast energizer
1/8 tsp. tannin
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 Campden tablet
Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (added after 24 hours)

Comments:
* The raisins add some sugar, tannin and body
* Pear skins have some tannin as well, so I only add 1/8 tsp. additional grape tannin
* Pears have a little bit of natural sorbitol, which is a non-fermentable sugar. So the final product will have a hint of sweetness.

Let us know how your adventure turns out!

 

[silverbullet07]

@Raptor99
Thanks for your detailed help. I have corded and chopped all my pears Now and was able to freeze 32 pounds. I left them frozen for a week and have started thawing them to begin this journey. The pears are really breaking down and getting real liquidity in the vacuum bags.

i Was wondering about the raisins and if I should use them Or not. You seem to recommend them. Have you tried pear with out and with them? Wondering what your thought are? What is your thoughts on your pear wine? do you like it? Also what about the tannins?

i am going the try and squeeze most of the liquids through the mesh bag and see how much I have. I would like to get 3 gal juice then maybe enough water to desolve the sugar to add.

I should start working on get the liquid out tomorrow to see what we have to begin with.

 

[Raptor99]

From what I have read, pear skins have a little bit of tannin. So with that many pears you could omit tannin from the recipe. It depends what taste you like. You could add some tannin at the end of primary fermentation if you feel like it needs more.

The raisins are totally up to you. They add a little more body to the wine, along with some sugar and tannin. If you have enough pears you might want to try one batch with raisins and one without to see which you like better. I suggest using a hydrometer to measure the sugar level and calculate how much to add. The batch without raisins will probably need more sugar.

 

[silverbullet07]

@Raptor99 how much water do you add to your 6lbs pears?

my 30lbs of pears I was able to squeeze out 3 gals. I added 1 gal of water to make it 4 gal hoping I can fill a 3 gal carboy after primary.

The juice is really thick. To thick for even a hydrometer to test it so I had to dilute the juice. I‘m adding pectin tonight hoping to start breaking some of the heavy stuff down.

 

[Raptor99]

I try to add enough water so that when I rack from the primary (bucket) into the secondary I have enough to fill it up. So I need an extra 1-2 pints per gallon in total liquids so that when I remove the fruit bag and rack it off the sediment I will have enough left. I'm still experimenting with finding the best way to do that. I'm trying to avoid adding extra water when I rack it into the secondary because that would throw off my adjusted SG and pH.

I think that if you have 4 gallons of juice, not including the fruit bag, that should be more than enough to rack into a 3 gallon carboy.

 

[silverbullet07]

Pear wine is now in secondary. SG has been 1.000 for a few days now. It has a nice color to it.