So my pear tree gave me about two coolers full of small pears this year(can't remember the variety). So what else can one do with something nutritious as fruit, but to turn it into alcohol. So I've read so many different ways to make fruit wine(other than grape), some boil the pears, some freeze, others just let it sit in its juices, which is the way I think I'm going to go. So my current plan of attack is to do the following: Let the pears ripen, remove the stem, cut in half remove the seeds, cut into smaller pieces, place into a fermenting pot (I'm thinking my 15 gal brew pot should work). I'll weigh the pot before and after the process to get an accurate weight. I'll add some kmeta and let it sit overnight. So my question at this point is the addition of water and sugar. How much per pound of fruit? Should the water be acidified as for grape wine before adding the sugar? Does anyone check for TA as you would for regular wine making and if so after you add the sugar water? I seen people shooting for a SG of 1.090, I don't want a really sweet wine so what should I be looking for? Thanks in advance.
First time pear wine- need some advise
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If you freeze them, let them thaw in your bucket sith some peptic enzyme they will juice much better.
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yup what dralarms said, I freeze leaving seeds in, after ferment then into first carboys I then let sit from 6 months to better then a year, tons of peptic enzymes. myself I like a blend of 20lb. apple. 20 lb. pear and aa few pound crabapple, sg up to around 1.030 then prepare 2 wait close to a year, 6 to 9 mo first carboy rack, then rack every 4 months, till age 2y/o,,,, some good stuff, I use EC1118 yeast run my alcohol up to around 18% ABV.
Dawg
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Scooter68
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Think after thawing I'd get rid of the seeds and stems. The rest of the pear should break down quite quickly.
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yep I press everything out after freezing, as long as seeds remain undamaged your good to go. after freezing you can get all juices out without cutting reducing handling greatly, wrap all pulp in a strainer bag get clear juice from that,
Arne
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If I get pears this year and i have a lead on a bunch of them. Think I am going to buy a new garbage disposer, rig it up so I can run the pears thru it. Make sure they are good and ripe, run them thru the disposer to crush them up, and put them in the apple press. Leaves pure juice to ferment. My buddies chickens and goats love the leftover cake from the pears. Arne.
the best if possible is to have pure juice. if not I would go for at least 10lbs of fruit per gallon of water. add the water then add the sugar to get to a sg of 1090. then measure for acid. use tartaric acid only to an acid of 6g/l. ferment with Cotes de Blanc which will aid in maintaining aroma of pear. one additional thought add betenoite to aid in clearing later. rack at sg of 1020 to a carboy. let it sit util sg=990 then rack again. wait three weeks for wine to clear rack again let age for three months. I found blending pear with apple wine makes a great wine.
Sounds like freezing is the way to go...can I use my basket press to press the fruit?. its a stainless steel basket type, not your typical fruit press, but the holes are pretty small. I'll pick up some apples to blend as well any particular variety to suggest?
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I would not do that, they are actually part of the apple family and apples have cyanide in the seeds.
knifemaker
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That's exactly the way I do it, it cuts a few seeds, but they're not in there long enough to cause an issue. The one thing is to not overload it, since it's a water cooled motor, it likes to get hot and trip out. I've been thinking i can change out the motor for an air cooled 3450 rpm motor and use a coupler to join the two, then I'd have a real fruit grinding machine. Dale.
the blend of apple wine to pear wine Is what I was suggesting not a co fermentation.
A blend of cider wines is a good choice. actually if you can get juice from a cider mill ferment it to a great wine.
You can use the basket pres s if the pears are very mushy other wise you my not get much juice or you may need to press more than once.
The garbage disposal idea is sound but it does overheat and can get frustrating waiting for it to cool. I used two once, while one was cooling used the second and then alternated.
A blend of cider wines is a good choice. actually if you can get juice from a cider mill ferment it to a great wine.
You can use the basket pres s if the pears are very mushy other wise you my not get much juice or you may need to press more than once.
The garbage disposal idea is sound but it does overheat and can get frustrating waiting for it to cool. I used two once, while one was cooling used the second and then alternated.
So i cored my semi frozen pears today and got a total of 74lbs! I mashed them with a potato masher as much as I could but had to transfer the batch to a larger fermenting container as it was too small. I added 7.4 gal of water along with 5 gm of Kmeta. I also added as of now, 12.5 lbs of sugar have a sg of 1.065. I wanted it to sit a bit before adding any more sugar to see if it levels out. Was this an appropriate amount of Kmeta to add? I plan on adding the petic enzyme tomorrow as it says to add just prior to fermentation. How much bentonite to add and when? Thanks gents...
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Arne
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You want to add something to help keep it from turning brown. Think it is lemon juice or citric acid. Someone else jump in if I am wrong, my memory isn't as great as it once was. Arne.
wineforfun
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@Arne is right with the lemon juice. At least that is what I had read when doing fresh apple juice.
I added some acid blend which contains 45% citric acid yesterday. I finished it off today with just tartaric. I did about 100 g tartaric total, and about 65 g blend to get a 6.0g/l TA. Pitched the yeast this morning and waiting for some activity.
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