Vintner's Harvest Pear Cider

[tokerlund]

I followed the recipe for the 3 gallon batch of pear wine from the 96oz can of Pear Concentrate. I only added enough sugar to get the OG to 1.060 as i want this to be an easy drinking cider with about 4-6% alcohol. I added some pectic enzyme, yeast energizer (didn't have any nutrient) and 2tsp of Acid Blend and 1/4 tsp of tannin.

For yeast, I want with the Cote Des Blancs from Red Star, as it was recommended by the folks at Midwest when I picked up the pear concentrate.

I plan to ferment it out as dry as possible, then rack. I plan to rack once more 2-3 weeks later for a total of about 6 weeks fermenting. Then I will add about a cup of pear juice per gallon and rack to bottling bucket. Then I will bottle and let carb for a week or two. My hope is to have a pear cider ready to drink by July 28th. I know I am pushing it to get a cider sparkling drinkable in 8 weeks, but we have friends visiting and on our last vacation, they discovered pear cider. My wife has been drinking Fox Barrel ever since. I just wanted to get something that would be fun and tasty to drink by the lake!


Any warning, suggestions or advice? I would appreciate tips on how to make it more drinkable, quicker. I am also looking for ways to save as much pear flavor as possible.

 

[Yooper]

It should get to .990 in about 10 days or so, give or take a few days. I'd suggest racking after that only when you have lees 1/4" thick, or after 60 days. It may or may not be clear in 6 weeks, though. If it's not, you could try finings but sometimes sticking the fermenter in the fridge for 3 days will clear it right up.

 

[tokerlund]

From what I had read up on pear juice, I thought there would be some residual, unfermentable sugars. .990 is lower than I thought it would go.

I had planned to ferment it upstairs so it would stay a bit warmer, say 75*. I just was reading that fermenting wine at higher temps was OK or even preferred. Then I wanted to bring it down to the basement and let it slow down while in the mid to upper 60's. After that, into the fridge it goes to cool down and clear.

I haven't used finings, and to be honest, I am not concerned about it being clear. One of the commercial pear ciders we tried is cloudy. I have even heard of brewing ciders with hefe yeast and actually trying for cloudiness.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Yooper]

From what I had read up on pear juice, I thought there would be some residual, unfermentable sugars. .990 is lower than I thought it would go.

I had planned to ferment it upstairs so it would stay a bit warmer, say 75*. I just was reading that fermenting wine at higher temps was OK or even preferred. Then I wanted to bring it down to the basement and let it slow down while in the mid to upper 60's. After that, into the fridge it goes to cool down and clear.

I haven't used finings, and to be honest, I am not concerned about it being clear. One of the commercial pear ciders we tried is cloudy. I have even heard of brewing ciders with hefe yeast and actually trying for cloudiness.

Thanks for the help!

Fruit juices tend to fully ferment out, as fructose is fully fermentable by ale and wine yeast. I would be very surprised if it finished any higher than .990 (dry).

75 degrees is fine for that yeast strain.

 

[tokerlund]

Well, I put 96oz of pear concentrate into the fermentor. Then I added about 4 cups sugar and water to bring it to 3.5 gallons and an OG of about 1.060. I added pectic enzyme, acid blend and a bit of tannin. It sat for 10 hours with 3 crushed up camden tablets doing their work. In the mean time, I stole about 2 cups of the must before I added the tablets and poured in a packet of the yeast I mentioned above.

After 10 hours the starter was bubbling every 3-6 seconds. I added it to the must, shook and sealed with an airlock. It was rocking before I went to bed Sunday night. I came home from work on Monday and the whole basement was smelling of sulphor.

It has finally slowed down now. I am going away for the weekend and plan to rack this the weekend after. That would be 14 days in the primary.

I am hoping that some of that smell is just the campden tablets being bubbled off. . .

 

[tokerlund]

I just kegged this puppy up. We sampled it still and there wasn't much pear flavor. It was nice and smooth and with a bit of carbonation it will probably taste like a champagne, which is good, because that is what the wife loves. However, after spending $40 on pear concentrate, I'd like to get some pear flavor. I ordered some pear extract. I got 3 1oz bottles from amazon for $13. I am going to add some to the keg of roughly 4.5 gallons. Any advice on how much extract would be enough?

 

[Jakey2005]

What did you ever decide on your pear extract. I'm trying my hand at making some cider as well and was considering using the vinters harvest as well. I was going to add it to 4 gallons of apple cider though.

 

[tokerlund]

I added 1oz bottles one at a time. Then rolled the keg and waited 1 day. Two, 1oz bottles was enough to get it some pear flavor.

That being said, I will NOT do that again. It would have been far cheaper to just ferment some apple juice with the correct method to strip out most of the flavor and then use the pear extract to get a 'pear cider'. But, I wanted a true perry with pear flavor, but flavored hard apple cider. I ended up paying way more to make pear flavored hard pear cider.

Sad, but unless I can get my hands on some Perry pears. .. I'll stick to Raspberry, Blackberry, Strawberry, etc. ciders. They have way more flavor for way less money.

 

[Jakey2005]

Yeah understand what you're saying. That stinks. I'm going to try and stop mine to leave some residual sugar and use potassium sorbate and campden tablets to stop the fermentation. I"m hoping that can keep some of the pear flavor and prevent what you're talking about. I guess it's just going to be a guessing game though as when to stop it.

 

[tokerlund]

I have found that stopping a cider about 1.005 to 1.015 leave it plenty sweet for my taste and saves some of the flavors. That is not pear specific, but mostly just generic apple ciders.

Let me know if you hit a sweet spot.

 

[Jakey2005]

Ok. I checked it two days ago and it was 1.020 and definitely still sweet and I could tell the pear was there. I'll check again tomorrow and if it's around 1.010 or so I'm going to stop it.