HELP! Peary questions. Low Brix

[mrbeachroach]

Hello everyone! I am trying to make Peary for the first time. I am very good at regular cider but this is new to me on the Peary. I got in late on my pears and cut up what I could salvage. 1/2 was waste. It took me till 1 am just to sort through them all and I was delirious. So I let them set in bath of campoden tablets to prevent browning and 5 gallons of water for 2 days until I could make time to juice them, then freeze juice for a later date. As I was juicing today I tasted the pear juice and it was very mild/ weak. I bit into the now soft like pears that were soaking and it was weak on flavor. I tested the Brix and it was only 7. 🙈 Regular average Brix for pears is 10.

1. Did soaking the pears make them loose flavor?

2 did soaking the, make them loose Brix?

3. I juiced a fresh pear from a different location and tree and it was Brix 14.

I don't have any more of the sweat ones.

4. How do I salvage this weak juice both in flavor and sugar. Please help. I can't scrap this batch!!!!

Lastly when you juice pears do you all save the pulp to add tannins/ flavor?

Thanks.

Mrbeachroach.

 

[Jessiegaddy]

You could add sugar or store bought juice. I have only used the skins and pulp when making pear wine. Soaking did extract some of the sugar from the fruit. You may even be able to find frozen pear juice in some supermarkets. Hope this turns out well for you and good luck.

 

[bernardsmith]

Sounds like you are diluting the pear juice by adding water . The brix must drop to almost zero if you are adding a significant volume of water compared to the volume of juice you are extracting from the pears. You don't say anything about the amount of pears you have but here is what I would do. Freeze the pears - not the water and juice and then allow the frozen fruit to thaw. The freezing will damage the cell walls and so allow the maximum amount of juice to be expressed. THAT volume is the volume for your wine. Water is for cleaning and diluting the sanitizers not for diluting fruit juice.
If you have already diluted the fruit juice then you can salvage the must in this way. Freeze hard the entire bucket of diluted pear juice and then remove the bucket from the freezer. Collect the juice as it thaws. The first gallon (perhaps more , possibly less - I don't know how much juice you had before you diluted it) will contain most or all of the sugar and flavor and tannins etc. That is your must. To that you could add more sugar if the gravity is still too low : for a pear cider you want the gravity to be about 1.050. For a pear wine the gravity should be about 1.090.
But water is for brewing beer - not for making wine.

 

[mrbeachroach]

Sounds like you are diluting the pear juice by adding water . The brix must drop to almost zero if you are adding a significant volume of water compared to the volume of juice you are extracting from the pears. You don't say anything about the amount of pears you have but here is what I would do. Freeze the pears - not the water and juice and then allow the frozen fruit to thaw. The freezing will damage the cell walls and so allow the maximum amount of juice to be expressed. THAT volume is the volume for your wine. Water is for cleaning and diluting the sanitizers not for diluting fruit juice.
If you have already diluted the fruit juice then you can salvage the must in this way. Freeze hard the entire bucket of diluted pear juice and then remove the bucket from the freezer. Collect the juice as it thaws. The first gallon (perhaps more , possibly less - I don't know how much juice you had before you diluted it) will contain most or all of the sugar and flavor and tannins etc. That is your must. To that you could add more sugar if the gravity is still too low : for a pear cider you want the gravity to be about 1.050. For a pear wine the gravity should be about 1.090.
But water is for brewing beer - not for making wine.

Actually did not dilute the juice, only let the whole pear pieces sit in water under an air lock to prevent oxidation and browning until I had time to make pure juice from those pears. But I think something happened when allowing them to sit in water. Like they are waterlogged pears. I tossed all the water, and only kept the pure juice of the pears. But it came to Brix 7 of just raw pear juice.

 

[Jessiegaddy]

I may be new to this forum but I have been brewing for over 15 years and have been a professional chef for over 20. Soaking any fruit or vegetable in water will remove sugars and starch because both are soluble in water. For example soaking a potato in water will remove the starch to make a crisper French fry. Soaking fruit will do the same thing. The longer the pears sat in the water the more sugar was dissolved in said water. Adding more sugar or juice imho is the best way to raise the gravity of the pear juice.