Pear beer?

[madscientist451]

My 2 cents is: If you haven't really brewed that much, stay with established, proven recipes that have already been fine-tuned many times. There are thousands and thousands of proven recipes out there, find one that looks like it will work, brew it and then see what changes you would make to suit your taste. I tried some of my own recipes early on and they kind of sucked, while recipes I found on line or in books always came out pretty good or even great. Once you get more experience, and figure out what you and the Mrs like/don't like, you'll have plenty of time to experiment and come up with your own creations.

 

[summerofgeorge]

Can I get away with no 60 minute hops? I mean, from what I've read, those are the bittering hops, right? I'm sure that'd substantially drop my IBU's down, and still allow me to use the aromatic hops at 45 min and flameout. Is there a light DME that I can use? Any recommendations? I haven't ordered the ingredients yet, just creating the recipe still.

You could go with no 60 minute hops but you'll need a lot more for a shorter time. See this recipe for an example: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=210253

I would just go with less bittering hops (1 oz of Centennial will be too much).

You said the Mrs will drink lighter pale ales. What specifically does she like? I would go for a clone of that but with some tweaks to get the pear flavor.

 

[SailorJerry]

So, brewing this tomorrow - would there be any difference in adding all 6# of LME for 60 minutes, versus doing 3# for 60 minutes, and 3# later in the brew session, like 15 min left? Does it keep the beer a lighter color?

 

[dmtaylor]

So, brewing this tomorrow - would there be any difference in adding all 6# of LME for 60 minutes, versus doing 3# for 60 minutes, and 3# later in the brew session, like 15 min left? Does it keep the beer a lighter color?

It's a color thing. For a lighter beer, save some LME for end of boil. If you were making a dark beer, it wouldn't matter as much.

 

[Brownalemikie]

So, brewing this tomorrow - would there be any difference in adding all 6# of LME for 60 minutes, versus doing 3# for 60 minutes, and 3# later in the brew session, like 15 min left? Does it keep the beer a lighter color?

Maybe OT, but I just bought some Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. Gotta say....I like it much better than Captain Morgan.

 

[SailorJerry]

Maybe OT, but I just bought some Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. Gotta say....I like it much better than Captain Morgan.

Way better than Captain. I haven't drank it in probably 5 years, which is from when I made this name.

 

[SailorJerry]

Alright, we got this brewed this weekend!
3# Extra Light LME at 60 min boil
1/2 oz Centennial hop at 60 min
1 oz Glacier at 15 min
Whirfloc tab at 15 min
3# Extra light LME at 15 min
1 oz Denali hop at 5 min
5 oz corn sugar at flame out

Hydrometer reading 1.067....much higher than I thought it'd be. Hopefully it turns out. The color in the hydrometer looked pretty awesome.

Oh, and we bottled our Dead Ringer clone, so that's carbonating. Tried it after taking FG reading, and it was already delicious.

 

[SailorJerry]

Also, I think we are going to buy that pear halves that are canned in pear concentrate, hoping the concentrate will add some more flavor to the beer. Do I need to do anything to these before I dump them into the secondary and rack the beer on top of them?

 

[SailorJerry]

So, we officially tried the beer this weekend, and it's good, has a fruity nose, but no real pear flavor. We are also getting a bitterness or harshness on the back end that we are trying to figure out. With half oz of centennial @ 60 min, I didn't think we'd really get much hop bitterness at all. I know when we tried the beer, before bottling, it has some alcohol harshness to it. I'm wondering if it's still pulling through the beer?

I don't remember the FG, but one of the ABV calculators that I used showed 7.35% (we shouldn't have done that 5 oz of corn sugar, didn't mean for it to be that high of alcohol content).

 

[Dynachrome]

Ok, so seven years zombie thread resurrection.

I've been gifted about 3 gallons of pears. They're not ripe. I saw a comment about placing them in covered buckets in the garage to "sweat" and ripen.

There was quite a bit of conjecture on how much pear flavor would come through.

I want to make peer beer. It looks like there are all sorts of alcoholic fermented beverages.

My question.... Does the pear mush lose it's flavor after fermenting?

 

[Rish]

Pear juice fermented is perry, like apple juice is cider. I've read that pear juice makes a slightly sweeter drink than cider but haven't made it. If I had those pears, I'd let them ripen then juice them and add it to your beer (maybe a Kölsch?) after fermentation is done so you retain as much pear flavor as possible.

 

[Agent]

This is timely as is just processed over 100lbs of pears today!

Pears do a very good job of ripening off the tree. Warm room temp is best. Just watch as bruising and other damage becomes apparent very quickly.

The tough part is that most of the flavor is in the peels, but the juice and sugar is in the flesh. So your best bet is to find uses for all the pear flesh, and save the peels to flavor a beer.

I make apple vodka every year with jars of loosely packed peelings. It does take a lot to get that prominent fruit flavor.