Pear cider

[calebgk]

My buddy is getting his pears crushed this aft (not a euphemism). We collected 677 lbs of Bosc pears off his one tree. We have no idea yet how much juice this is going to result in, but there are about 5 guys involved that will be taking the juice and fermenting it one way or the other.

Three of us are keen on making cider. I've done several basic hard ciders and have been very pleased with them. With pear, particularly this breed, should I be mixing some apple cider in with it? What kind of percentage? Are there any other considerations when making perry?

 

[gregbathurst]

The acidity of pears is very low so you might want to measure the pH or TA and add some malic or tartaric acid. Pear juice is usually blended with apple juice, more apple than pear. Be sure to measure sg before fermenting.

 

[DrPizza]

I'm interested in this as well. My brother dropped by a couple hours ago with some pears to press. He was hoping for 6 gallons. 16 1/2 gallons later, I've blended 4.5 gallons of pear & a hair under 2 gallons of a blend of apples into my primary, and mixed in my campden tablets.

Does anyone recommend one of these:
Safale S04
Saflager S23
Nottingham

That's what I have on hand at the moment - if there's a better recommendation, I can always get something else; but I'd rather not waste an evening. I can also bump up the SG to whatever is recommended by someone who knows what they're doing (I'll aim for 1.6) - I have plenty of table sugar & plenty of dextrose on hand.

 

[Elgran]

I'm interested in this as well. My brother dropped by a couple hours ago with some pears to press. He was hoping for 6 gallons. 16 1/2 gallons later, I've blended 4.5 gallons of pear & a hair under 2 gallons of a blend of apples into my primary, and mixed in my campden tablets.

Does anyone recommend one of these:
Safale S04
Saflager S23
Nottingham

That's what I have on hand at the moment - if there's a better recommendation, I can always get something else; but I'd rather not waste an evening. I can also bump up the SG to whatever is recommended by someone who knows what they're doing (I'll aim for 1.6) - I have plenty of table sugar & plenty of dextrose on hand.

The Juice and about 2 lbs of sugar should get you to the 1.060 range and that should put you at a 7.9% ABV. The Safale S04 is one I have used a few times now and it does well for apple wines and ciders IMHO. I haven't tried the others yet though so I couldn't tell you on those. Good luck and let us know how it goes, I really want to do a Perry myself.

 

[insanim8er]

I crushed and pressed about 150lb of Bosc pears with a really crappy 2x4 press. I got 6 gallons.

This was a looooong process. I laid the pears out in my spare room for several weeks to ripen. I then added them to a bunch of paper bags to get them really soft and ripe. I cut, cleaned, then froze them. This breaks the cells and juices them easier. Then I pressed with a junky press I made of scrap and a jack. It was too much work.

Since then I've upgraded to a 20 ton air over hydrolic jack on a Harbor freight shop press.

I didn't do anything but add yeast. It was disgusting up until about a years of aging and added acid and tannin. Right now it's sitting in a keg. It's ok, but not really that great. The flavor is very delicate and light. It's mainly floral and watery not pear at all. The color is fantastic. It's almost pink.

I'm trying to find pear concentrate, so I can back sweeten and add some pear back into it. I think once its done itll be fantastic. But I wouldn't get my hopes up that it will be mind blowing with out a lot of addition and back sweetening.