Pear cider help

[Twinky]

I tried my hand at a pear cider last week. I started off with a 1qt starter of wyeast1058 made with pear juice, the yeast came out of a patch of IIPA and went in to the fridge and then I brought it back with the pear juice, the yeast did fine in the starter. I used 3qt of Gerber brand pear juice, plus the starter for a gallon, I also added 3qt of store bought apple juice and around a gallon of pear juice from some fresh pears. I also added 12 oz of honey and about a cup of dextrose. I decided to pasteurize at 180 for 30 min. The only issues I had was a yellow jacket flew in to the cider about half way through the pasteurization, I fished it out and spent the rest of the time fighting off other bees. It went in to the fermenter Monday, I aerated well as I cooled the cider. I took my first taste today and it was odd. It wasn't very cider like, it was very dry and wine-y, the pear comes through well on the finish but its got a slight bitter start and a slightly sulferic twang. I'm wondering if I've done some thing wrong. It fermented aggressively for a day and its still going slightly, I don't have a hydrometer but there is a good alcohol warmth. Does this sound right? Does it need more time or am I making pear vinegar?

 

[MNFirefly]

It sounds like you might need to backsweeten it to get the natural pear flavor back. The yeast definitely gobbled up all of the sugars, which is why your cider is dry.

 

[JKaranka]

Perry is *more* like white wine than cider. The pear flavour doesn't stick much around, but it can be increased with the right perry pears. Like with cider, you want the blend to have enough acidity as well:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/pears.htm

Good article on perry here:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/21/perry-drinks-review-fiona-beckett

"And I remember the drink, too; quite different from cider, pure, fragrant, much like a white wine.

Fast-forward 20 years, and we're in the middle of a pear cider boom that has nothing to do with perry – it's made from dessert pears or concentrate with added artificial flavours. "

 

[GenIke]

Are you guys making your own pear cider or buying it?

 

[Twinky]

Are you guys making your own pear cider or buying it?

I used both for mine, a few lbs of fresh pears gve me a bit better than a gallon of juice and the rest I used was store bought from the baby aisle.

 

[Twinky]

I did another tasting today. The sulfer notes are pretty well gone and its picked up a warm floral tone that accents the pear finish. It's still very cloudy so I will be racking to 2nd next week.

 

[Randzor]

I've heard that it'll be very cloudy from what I remember when I made pear wine