Cider Bites

[qwasert]

I pressed about three gallons of pears from my in-laws tree. Put them in my sanatised brew pot with 4 crushed campden tabs and let it sit for 24 hrs. I tasted the juice and then siphoned off the juice into my glass carboy, pitched my yeast and away it went. I went to bottle My cider and took a hydro reeding. Started fermentation at 1060 and finished at 1010. I bottled four weeks after fermentation had stopped. I didn't rack to a secondary after primary was done because I was happy with the clarity. The cider has been in bottles a few days now and I tasted some to get an idea of my finished product and i can taste a bit of sulfur and it has a bit of a bite. My perry I made last year was amazing and this year, not so much. Any ideas? Maybe I should have done a secondary after two weeks for two more weeks? Is the yeast giving me this flavor? I used Red Star wine yeast. It is also very dry and has no pear flavor at all.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dinnerstick]

was this stuff from the same pears as the one you liked?
do you get along with the in-laws?
personally i would not use sulfites unless absolutely necessary. i never add them to nice fresh juice. don't see the point. could SO2 be contributing to the off flavor? no idea

as you undoubtedly know perry is notoriously difficult to get right...and difficult to get the acidity required for an interesting taste. that's why i ask about using the same pears as last time. i have never managed to make a palatable batch but my start and finish readings (champagne yeast) were very similar to yours

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I think it's just young. Give it more time & it'll get better. I've had the same flavour stripping problem with wine yeast & apple juice; my solution was to switch to an ale yeast. As for the difference in last year's batch & this one, if you've done everything exactly the same, then it's likely the fruit. Even grapes vary from year to year depending on many factors: length of growing season, amounts of rain, temp, etc...
Such things effect all fruits & veggies. Regards, GF.

 

[truckjohn]

Pears can be quite acidic.... Ferment out all or most of the sugar and it tastes pretty sharp.....

Aging is the thing to do... All things will mellow out with age.

Back sweetening will also help a lot if you like a perry that is a bit sweeter...

Thanks

 

[qwasert]

Thanks for all the advice! I guess I'll just have to wait till next year. Also I think first year batch of pears had a chance to freeze while still on the tree. This year the pears had not frozen. That could make a huge difference between a pear wine and an ice pear wine.

 

[truckjohn]

That seems to make a big difference here too -- they seem to get sweeter and less sharp as they hang on the tree longer.... especially on the bitter/sour pears that make good perry...

Thanks