First time pear wine

[Suemc]

I’ve made wine and mead several times but still consider myself a beginner. I have 30 gal (all this year) of a variety bulk aging so was getting a little cocky about my skills until I recently made pear wine from our homegrown pears. All prior wines have been from kits or bottled/canned juice. The fruit went into nylon bags into the primary, removed at seven days and moved into secondary per instructions. The Sg today is 0.996. My problem is there is a huge amount of sediment and it’s not done settling. When I rack I will in no way be able to get any where near 3 gallons. I have another 20 lbs of pears in the freezer to make a four gal batch and eventually blend the two. Should I rack ASAP or let it settle more and/or use an additive to hasten settling? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Rish]

I'd set it aside and let it continue to settle. It won't hurt to leave it and might improve it in my experience. I don't use finings so can't speak to that. Good luck!

 

[Raptor99]

Pear wine creates a lot of sediment. If you have it in a carboy with little headspace, I would leave it for a while longer, until you see a clear layer of sediment at the bottom. Then when you rack to a clean carboy, pour the part with the sediment into a sanitized container of suitable size (wine bottle or 1/2 gal jug) and put it in the fridge for a few days. That will cause the sediment to compact, and you should be able to recover more of your wine that way.

Pears are high in pectin, so if you haven't added any pectic enzyme yet I would add a double dose at this point. Otherwise the haze is almost impossible to clear.

Using 20 lbs. of pears for a 4 gallon batch will produce a thin pear flavor. I suggest using at least 7-8 lbs. per target volume. So with 20 lbs. I would probably make a 2.5 gallon batch, which might give you 1.5 or 1.75 gal. after racking off the sediment.

 

[Suemc]

Thank you both. I’ll leave it longer. I did add pectic enzyme in the beginning but could add more if appropriate. Regarding my future batch, would I be better off juicing my frozen pears rather than use the chopped fruit or would the large sediment problem be about the same?

 

[Apple&PearTrees!]

Hi, also making pear cider 1st time. (From fresh juiced pears) Lot of sediment. Added half mug of tea with 2 teabags. Added 30 raisins. Added a lidl fresh pressed (no preservatives) shot of ginger, lemon, apple. (All Added same time as cider yeast and all at room temp) Now clear as a bell after nearly 2 weeks with thick sediment at bottom (apple ciders stayed cloudy). Just taken photo of 1 clear on left (after 2weeks in primary) and 1 still fermenting. Hope this is of any help

 

[Suemc]

Hi, also making pear cider 1st time. (From fresh juiced pears) Lot of sediment. Added half mug of tea with 2 teabags. Added 30 raisins. Added a lidl fresh pressed (no preservatives) shot of ginger, lemon, apple. (All Added same time as cider yeast and all at room temp) Now clear as a bell after nearly 2 weeks with thick sediment at bottom (apple ciders stayed cloudy). Just taken photo of 1 clear on left (after 2weeks in primary) and 1 still fermenting. Hope this is of any help

 

[Erik the Awful]

I make a lot of random fruit wines. I use pectic enzyme in primary fermentation, bentonite when I start secondary, and two weeks before bottling I add sparkolloid. They're all vegan friendly, but also effective.

This week I posted about my corn wine, and it was about half sediment. It clarified very well with bentonite and sparkolloid. I didn't use pectic enzyme because I was already using Angel Leavening. Picture in the link below.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...rn-with-angel-leavening.729675/#post-10406801

 

[D the Catastrophist]

I love pear wine and have made both Bartlett and D'Anjou pear wine. 6 lbs of pears makes with one gallon of water yields 4 750 ml bottles, so you lose about a 5th to sediment. Even using a very fine mesh straining bag to hold the fruit in primary. I add pectic to primary and wait at least 24 hrs before adding yeast to give it a head start.
Both after about 3 weeks in primary were racked to secondary and then sitting for a month before racking again to get off the lees. I ended up racking both once more to get rid of all the sediments.
If I did it again I would probably wait another month before racking the 2nd time, let it settle out more.
Bartlett required more additions like acids to make it less 'flabby'.

 

[JimboMarimbo]

Great information, on balance at least one of my questions is sorted - following E Kraus method for pear wine he, also, says chop roughly, no boiling (do NOT pulp or process) and put in fine filter bag during primary with pectolaze type enzyme, dump bag after 7days and proceed as usual. Maximise 'pear-y' flavour with double quantities-to-water: no problem with this years 2025 pear glut.