Bartlet Perry tannin and flavor suggestions

[GerrieRPh]

Last year, beginner brewers we made 6 one gallon batches of various pear wines with apple (the best) and honey (we are bee keepers). All batches were uninspiring. Bland. This year, weve got 1 gallon batches of strawberry, blackberries and aronia going.

Due to a freezer malfunction, we find ourselves with 2x5 gallon buckets of Bartlett pears to use in wine making. I have wine tannin and acid blend and lots of honey and sugar. On hand, we also have ale yeast, premier Cuvee and some Lavin 1116. I've got acess to a few more aronia berries, blueberries and dehydrated rhubarb and pears. I'm not against buying herbs or spices.

What additives might this group suggest for more interesting wine? Thanks!

 

[CKuhns]

Pears when juiced are by nature pretty bland / neutral. The wine tannin and acid will certainly help. Ale yeast will add some flavor as well but depending on the yeast can give you a little ale like flavor. Premier Cuvee if fermented slowly at the very low end of the temp tolerance would be OK. 1118 may strip any flavor as is is a very aggressive and high ABV tolerant yeast. I would suggest your berry ideas added in secondary may be your best bet then add the tannin and acid to taste. I would definitely not use sugar. I have tried some in ciders and really didn't like the results. Honey would work well as an addition.

Here is my recommendation for fruit additions. (Works for me = Others will have differing opinions)

All of these Fruit additions would take place in Secondary (After freezing the fruit to break the cell walls down.)
- I use a wide mouth fermenter and place the fruit in a sanitized mesh bag (Paint strainer bags from your local big box store work great) Makes for easy clean up and racking.

All are the amounts I use for 5 gallon batches but can be can be adjusted for your volume.

10 – 15 Days (Most fruit pretty much give up all their flavor in 2 weeks)
Blueberries, Cherries (Sweet)
Mild Fruit Character – 5 to 7 lbs
Medium Fruit Character – 8 - 10 lbs
Strong Fruit Character – 11 lbs or more

Citrus Fruits
Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs
Medium Fruit Character – 6 to 8 lbs
Strong Fruit Character – 9 lbs or more

Pears, Apples
Mild Fruit Character – 5 lbs to 7 lbs
Medium Fruit Character – 8 to 10 lbs
Strong Fruit Character – 11 lbs or more

Plums (use skins as well)
Mild Fruit Character – 4 lbs to 6 lbs
Medium Fruit Character – 7 to 9 lbs
Strong Fruit Character – 10 lbs or more

Raspberries – Blackberries - Cranberries
Mild Fruit Character – 3 lbs to 5 lbs
Medium Fruit Character – 6 to 8 lbs
Strong Fruit Character – 9 lbs or more

Strawberries
Mild Fruit Character – 5 to 7 lbs
Medium Fruit Character – 8 to 10 lbs
Strong Fruit Character – 11 to 13 lbs

Good luck - Let us know how it goes.

 

[GerrieRPh]

Opted to use 1116 in the primary. December 22nd. The blackberry is to the right. From the pear mash, we ended up with 4 x 1 gallon and one quart. I cant thank you all enough for the help!

 

[GerrieRPh]

I forgot to say, the primary ferment in buckets was 2 weeks. Then racked to the gallon jugs above. Another 10 days passed before we could add the amendments. Added 1 pound of BeeBlessed wildflower honey per gallon perry. 1. Cranberry (12oz) 2. Rhubarb (1 cup dehydrated) 3. Chamomile (1/2 cup dried) and 1 vanilla bean. 4. My "Rheumatism" mix of wild crafted medicinals: burdock, sumac berries, juniper berry, iron weed and ginseng. I'll update this thread in the future. Thanks again!!!!

 

[Bpwilly]

Would be very interested in how these different "perries" came out. Quite the mix of secondary flavors. Keep us posted.

 

[GerrieRPh]

Finally got around to tasting and bottling. Pictured here is the cranberry-perry-mead along side a plain strawberry wine and a blackberry wine.

Tastings and lessons learned: For the 4 perry-meads - the additions really do shine through as aromatics in these very dry wines. My favorite is actually my rheumatism mix - which has a unique flavor that you just cant pin point. I love the complexity of the bitter notes! Hope it helps the knees. To do again, I would leave the pears out, and use 3# honey/gallon, zero citric acid and be more careful in racking and rack timing to avoid the flowers. Cranberry and Rhubarb amounts are too tart for just a 1 gallon batch.

Lessons learned (and well, DUH) : this time, we used a full pound of honey along with the pear juice. This worked better than just a half pound, as I disliked the flavor of the pear sugars that don't ferment. An additional mistake was adding a small amount of citric acid to try to balance that sweetness. Another confounder were the "flowers" on a few of the jugs that may have added excessive tartness in conjunction with tart fruits. I also dislike the vanilla chamomile, which tastes like a cheap, stinky candle. But we went ahead and bottled all of them. I'll put labels on the bottle with instructions to dilute with cranberry juice or apple juice to hopefully off set the tartness.

The strawberry and blackberry wines turned out much better. The strawberries were over ripe from our garden, so no loss if the wine didn't turn out. And the blackberries were wildcrafted (think too small to eat). The blackberry wine initially smelled like something from Boones farm, so we were excited how well a dry blackberry wine tastes.

We've got buckets of honey covered wax from our apiary that still need cleaning, so will definitely make batch of straight mead this fall and another batch of rheumatism mix, minus the pears. Lesson learned: keep the pears as perry and honey as mead. Next up aronia wine that needs bottling.

Thanks for everyone's encouragement and tips!