Pear Cider

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DaMonkey

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I was going to make a combination pear/apple cider. But the pear concentrate is more then I wanted to spend but I was planning to mix it with a cider base. Instead I bought natural pear flavor which is cheaper. I plan to ferment my cider and add the flavoring before bottling with sugar. Has anyone done this with any success?
 
I've got a pear cider going right now. I did a large OG five gallon batch which finished at 9.4%. Then I split the cider into two separate carboys to do two 5 gallon batches. Each carboy got 2.5 gallons of fermented cider then I added either 2.5 gallons of peach concentrate in one and 2.5 gallons fresh cider in the other. Thus, making 10 gallons total. I used PS to stop fermentation. It still kept fermenting though. The Peach one has some nasty looking crap on the bottom of the carboy. I haven't tasted it for a while, but the peach is hard to pick out of the cider.
 
Haven't used pear flavoring, but tasted my pear cider yesterday and the pear flavor is there, but just barely. Pressing the pears was a hassle compared to apples, next fall I'll probably skip the pears and try something else. I can't get real cider pears here, only the usual dessert varieties.
If you want the apple cider to taste like pears, use a yeast that will go all the way to dryness, like WL english cider yeast. That way there won't be any apple flavor to compete with the more delicate pear flavor.
 
I= then I added either 2.5 gallons of peach concentrate in one and 2.5 gallons fresh cider in the other.

Curious the brand of the Pear concentrate you found?? I looked all over all I could find was some 1 quart bottles that were super spendy.
 
Curious the brand of the Pear concentrate you found?? I looked all over all I could find was some 1 quart bottles that were super spendy.

I found 96oz can of pear concentrate at one of my brew stores. I forget the brand. But you should check your local brew stores.
 
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One "gotcha" with fruit concentrates is the addition of preservatives. They're meant to kill off microbes (such as yeast), and could have a negative side effect on your fermentation.

If you got an "all-natural" fruit extract, then you should get a good flavor profile from it. Just remember: many of the sugars found in juice concentrates are quite fermentable, and will not leave the residual sweetness you're probably looking for. Take a sample before you keg/bottle to ensure the yeast didn't destroy the sweet flavors you're looking for.

I only mention this because I once attempted a hard lemonade, and ended up with a lemon wine (alcoholic lemon juice).
 
I almost bought some pear concentrate here:

They have organic "Vegan" \ kosher pear concentrate for $13\QT or $64.50\Gal!!
http://naturesflavors.com/organic-pear-juice-concentrate-kosher-vegan-gluten-free-22991



or much cheaper "Vegan" pear juice concentrate
$6\Qt or $13\gal
http://naturesflavors.com/pear-juice-concentrate-vegan-22941

...but the real gotcha is the required shipping cost on top of that was $40 as it requires 2 day air shipping.

They also have a lot of natural pear, (and every other fruit imaginable) flavorings, syrups, waters etc. that would probably work well and ships much cheaper.
 
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