Perry

Khannie

So I bought 30KG of pears today for 20 euro in Aldi. Bless them. I have a juicer that I'm going to use (in the absence of a proper press which I intend building before the Autumn).

Does anyone have any last minute advice for me before I engage in this folly this evening? Is there a better way than the juicer perhaps? I have a blender too.

BeerNut

I'm told you can only make perry from specific perry pears. Eating pears are no good. But sure you're half done now...

Ah yeah, here we go: eating pears are seemingly rife with bacteria which will taint the flavour.

Khannie

BeerNut wrote: »

Ah yeah, here we go: eating pears are seemingly rife with bacteria which will taint the flavour.

That's a good read, thanks. I might go down the pasteurisation route then (or try a starter as suggested). I'd rather not add in the sulphites if I can avoid it. I may also add in some bitter apples if I can get my hands on them for the acid. Might try to pick up some PH measurement sticks in the chemist.

From that article, regarding this:

BTW regarding S02/camden/sulphites as additives I agree, but it's known that sulphites added at the juice/fermentation stage are gone/used up by the end of fermentation

Is that true? Where do they "go"?

BeerNut

You're probably better asking on that thread.

Khannie

Go on then....

Khannie

OK, further googling lead me to remember this from the llewellyns site. They made and sold a pear juice made from conference pears (my favourite eaters). For storing it (presumably to restrict bacterial growth) they added citric and malic acid to it. This apparently also enhanced the flavour.

Both are for sale from the home brew company, but I don't fancy waiting 'til Tuesday for them. Does anyone know if they can be bought in a shop easily? Would a chemist stock them?

Khannie

Just a guess but a health food shop might be worth a shot.

Khannie wrote: »

OK, further googling lead me to remember this from the llewellyns site. They made and sold a pear juice made from conference pears (my favourite eaters). For storing it (presumably to restrict bacterial growth) they added citric and malic acid to it. This apparently also enhanced the flavour.

Both are for sale from the home brew company, but I don't fancy waiting 'til Tuesday for them. Does anyone know if they can be bought in a shop easily? Would a chemist stock them?

Khannie

Good idea. It seems malic acid is sold as a supplement. Might just add some lime if I can't get citric acid.

Khannie

Well....slightly long story:

I got some malic acid and PH strips from the home brew company. Bought some cooking apples to add bite (and acid). I used our juicer to juice the pears after washing them and removing the stalks. This was initially very slow, but I got into my stride after a while.

The problem with me getting into my stride was that the juicer wasn't getting enough cool-down time. As a result, about 85% of the way through the motor packed it in. Bad news.

In the end I got about 17 litres of actual juice. There is about 3 litres of very fine pear "mush" on top and about 1 litre of something at the bottom (so total is about 21 litres by volume). There was initially a very thick (6-8cm) layer of a thick mousse like substance on the top which I scooped off. Gravity with just the apples and pears (about 10% apple juice I'd say) was 1.042 so I bumped it up to 1.056, given that there will be unfermentable sugars from the pear in there.

As a juice it tasted delicious. Nicely tart with the pear flavour really shining through.

I pitched as best I could, but there was still a thin layer of mousse like stuff on the top which I didn't see the yeast making it through so I ended up stirring in the yeast after an hour or so to get it in with the liquids. No obvious sign of any fermentation this morning, but it is hard to tell with all the other non-juice bits in there.

Westwood

Good thread looking into making something similar to Ritz for the other half. seems to love the stuff :rolleyes: interesting to see how this turns out. if youve ever tasted Ritz :eek: see if its similar.

Khannie

Eh....I have tasted Ritz....but not in the last 10 years. I have no idea what it tastes like. I'll let you know how it turns out though. It is fermenting away nicely at the moment. The advice I got over on beoir was not to drink it for at least 3 months. I'll probably last that long though I'm dying to see how it turns out.

If this works out well though I'll probably do it again when I have proper kit for dealing with fruit. While adding the acid etc. to the eating pears to ensure a safe brew was a bit more hassle, I wouldn't be put off doing it again.

Khannie

Bit of an update on this: No major disasters in that it fermented away nicely without any infection. I transferred it to a secondary there during the week (I've been away with work) and had a little taste. It was thin enough but you could taste the pear in it, so thumbs up there. Bit of bite from the acid. Ever so slightly more than I would have wanted, but it's early days still. I'd say it'll be nice after a while in secondary and a while in the bottle.

FG was 1.004 so the amount of sorbitol in the Rocha pears is lower than in perry pears. I was guessing it would be around the 1.008 mark, so alcohol levels will be slightly higher than I had anticipated.

There was a LOT of sediment in the end - around the 5L mark which meant I had to siphon the liquid out instead of using the tap in the brew bucket. I'd say that was mostly down to me using the juicer instead of a press.

Total pear cider was around 16.5L, give or take.

sharingan

Nice ratio of pears to pear juice.

Definitely leave it for several months. Pressed fruit takes longer for the flavours to settle.

Khannie

sharingan wrote: »

Nice ratio of pears to pear juice.

Yeah, I'd say I used about 26-27KG of the pears before the juicer packed it in so that extraction rate is pretty decent.

sharingan wrote: »

Definitely leave it for several months. Pressed fruit takes longer for the flavours to settle.

Will do. Cheers. Think I'll give it a month in secondary and a month in the bottle before giving it a sample.

sharingan

Khannie wrote: »

Yeah, I'd say I used about 26-27KG of the pears before the juicer packed it in so that extraction rate is pretty decent.

In commercial perry breweries they can get very high juice extraction - about 80L out of 100 Kg of pears. Thats not a bad ratio when you are just using kitchenware.

Khannie wrote: »

Will do. Cheers. Think I'll give it a month in secondary and a month in the bottle before giving it a sample.

For ... ah .... scientific reasons. ... yes.

Khannie

Bottled this last night. Very tasty stuff. Not dissimilar to kopparberg (though I find that a bit too sweet). Here's what it looks like:

Khannie

Ah lads....I'm bitter here. I opened a test bottle of the pear cider and it hasn't carbonated at all.

I had it racked off primary for a while before I batch primed (though I did this by just pouring a sugar and water syrup into the secondary because all of my brewing vessels were in use at the time). I noticed that there was very little sediment in the bottom of the bottle. Do I just need to leave it longer? Or have I made an arse of it?

I must say though; It tastes delicious. Very similar to pear drops. Yum!

Khannie

Opened a second bottle to see if the first bottle was a one off. Another one that's not carbonated. I resealed it and I'm just going to leave it for a while in the hope that it carbonates slowly. If anyone has any similar experiences I'd love to hear it.

Khannie

Bit of an update on this - It's been in the bottle a while now and didn't really carbonate very well. I opened one up and tried adding a teaspoon of sugar. Bad idea. Instant fizz bomb. last night I opened up 7 of them and added about 4g of honey to each one (no fizz bomb). Going to leave them about two weeks and see how they progress.

Apart from the lack of carbonation they are absolutely delicious though. A little thin, but in a somewhat refreshing way. Just the right amount of acidity. Crystal clear.