Pear Wine vs. Pear Cider

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Raptor99

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I was wondering how much fruit others are using to make fruit wine. When I compared recipes found that some pear wine recipes use about 4 lbs. of pears plus 6 pints of water to make a gallon of wine. That is 3/4 water! But most of the pear cider recipes use 20 lbs. of pears for 1 gallon, so they are made from pear juice with no added water. Why is this so different?

It seems to me that my fruit wine is better if I use more fruit and less water. I have been experimenting with increasing the amount of fruit beyond the 3 or 4 lbs. per gallon recommended in most recipes. So far I like the result.

To maximize the fruit flavor, I wash, chop/core, and freeze the fruit first to break down the cell structure. Then I thaw and mash it and leave the fruit pulp in the primary for a few days in a mesh bag. Some recipes recommend juicing the fruit before starting fermentation, but I have been leaving it in the primary. With pectic enzyme plus patience, I have never had a problem with getting my wine to clear.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions that you have.
 
A lot of recipes are very specific to what the chef (or vintner, brewer, etc.) had success with when making the creation. They are literally not written in stone. If you don't like walnuts in your chocolate chip cookies, don't put walnuts in your chocolate chip cookies. If you want your pear wine and other fruit wines to be more juice, and less water - make them with more juice, and less water.

The important parts in making wine become wine have to do with pH, sugar levels, and yeast. As long as the yeast can thrive and eat the sugars, you can pretty much make wine out of anything. Recipes are kind of guidelines. You don't have to follow them to the letter. Will it change the end result? Definitely. Will it be better, or worse? Experiment, and find out.
 
I was wondering how much fruit others are using to make fruit wine. When I compared recipes found that some pear wine recipes use about 4 lbs. of pears plus 6 pints of water to make a gallon of wine. That is 3/4 water! But most of the pear cider recipes use 20 lbs. of pears for 1 gallon, so they are made from pear juice with no added water. Why is this so different?

It seems to me that my fruit wine is better if I use more fruit and less water. I have been experimenting with increasing the amount of fruit beyond the 3 or 4 lbs. per gallon recommended in most recipes. So far I like the result.

To maximize the fruit flavor, I wash, chop/core, and freeze the fruit first to break down the cell structure. Then I thaw and mash it and leave the fruit pulp in the primary for a few days in a mesh bag. Some recipes recommend juicing the fruit before starting fermentation, but I have been leaving it in the primary. With pectic enzyme plus patience, I have never had a problem with getting my wine to clear.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions that you have.

The water/fruit juice isn't technically true. Many wines, especially historically, did/do not add water.

The definitive definition of a cider is that they technically can only be produced from the juice of pome fruits (Apples, pears, quince, loquat, etc).

You can make apple cider or Apple wine, but you cannot technically make a (pure) raspberry cider ( it could be an adjunct in a cider, but cannot be the primary or sole juice)

Another major technical difference between wine and cider is alcohol content - cider is typically lower, at 3-8%, whereas wine is higher, at 9-15% (this is what would differentiate apple cider from apple wine), and this is often even codified by law in some countries. Also, as a result of abv, wines typically have lower sugar content, and cider higher (generally)

As far as fruit content goes, I find that it just depends on how much body you want. 4 pounds is generally a good rule of thumb for medium bodied country wine (...generally). 6 makes for a heavier bodied wine. Although, subtler fruits like pear can warrant 6 pounds to get a medium bodied wine, and 8+ to get a heavier bodied wine
 
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Thanks for your helpful reply. The definition of cider makes sense. I heard that some people make pear wine from 100% pear juice with no added water. But that would not be possible with some other fruits because there would be too much acid.

For this year's batches I am trying 7.5 lbs. of fruit in my pear wine, and 5 lbs. for both the peach and blueberry wines. That's a little more than I used last year. I want to get more body and more fruit flavor.
 
You can make apple cider or Apple wine, but you cannot technically make a (pure) raspberry cider ( it could be an adjunct in a cider, but cannot be the primary or sole juice)

Depends on where you live. In Italy, wine is made from grapes period. Any other fermented fruit is called cider. Apple or not.
 
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