What kind of pears are these? Cider worthy?

[TripleC223]

A buddy of mine was good enough to give me two 5-gallon buckets worth of pears he pulled from the tree in his yard. Neither of us are sure what kind of pears they are, but I’m interested in using them to make my first pear cider.

They’re pretty hard right now, but they’re crisp and lightly sweet as is. I assume they’ll sweeten more as they ripen.

Can somebody tell me the best way to turn them into juice without an actual juicer, once they ripen?

I brew beer and have all the necessary equipment to pull homebrewing off, so I’m trying to adapt my operation for this cider batch. I have a few different ale yeasts available and an unopened packet of Lalvin 71B. Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ong]

Wow, super russeted!

As long as you’re willing to say goodbye to a few hours of spare time you could probably make due with a blender... just avoid getting the seeds and stems in there (it will purée a lot more finely than a fruit crusher would).

 

[Chalkyt]

They look and sound like Nashi Pears which are reasonably firm. I used about 10% Beurre Bosc pears in a batch this year (because I had them!). They are also reasonably firm and I crushed them before they became soft and once the sweetness and flavour was O.K.

Pears contain a relatively high amount of Sorbitol which is a non fermentable sugar. This batch did have a certain amount of residual sweetness even when fully fermented.

Unfortunately I compromised the "experiment" because I also added cherries into secondary so don't know if the sweetness was due to the pears or cherries which also have sorbitol (but not as much).

Anyhow the "cherry cider" is great. I used DV10 for this batch so there are too many variables to know what made it so good.