Pear!!!

[Dend78]

Well I found out my grandfather has a pear tree, and it has a bunch of pears this year and hes not doing anything with them . So I went and did some picking this weekend, this is the tallest pear tree i have ever seen, 20ft extension ladder on one side and i was able to reach about 5 pears

anyway i was able to get my hands on a bunch after some shaking I ended up with 2 full 5 gallon buckets and 3/4 of another. needless to say last night i spent my time cleaning up the ones that were in need of quick use. i ended up coring about 25.5lbs and im shooing for about 4gallons here.


25.5lbs of pears cleaned cored and put in the food processor
6lbs of sugar
4 cups water
2 tablespoons pectic enzyme
1 teaspoon assorbic acid
2.75lbs golden rasins ran through the food processor
3 teaspoons acid blend
2 teaspoons tannin
1 3/4 teaspoons bentonite
4 teaspoons yeast nutrient
1/8 teaspoon k-meta
Red Star Pasteur Champagne Dry Yeast (this is a packet of yeast i have left over from making rootbeer, i used about 1/8tsp of it and i would hate to see it go to waste)

all pears were washed and cored and ran through a food processor, from the food processor I moved the pulp into a jumbo mesh straining bag along with the golden raisins. after chopping was all done I boiled about 4 cups of water and added in the 6lbs of sugar and stirred this until all sugar dissolved. Using my hands i pressed on the bag of pulp to get some juice pushing out of it, then I added in the assorbic acid, and then i dumped the hot simple syrup right on top. I let it sit to cool for a while then added in tannin, bentonite, k-meta, yeast nutrient and acid blend. I let this sit over night about 8-9 hours then I added in pectic enzyme. tonight i plan to get a yeast starter going then add it to the mix later tonight or possibly in the morning. I plan to go from 1.085 to 0.996 I will adjust sugar number once I reach that initial gravity.



Issues I have noticed using this much fruit makes my 5gal primary extremely full. would it be best if i get out my other nylon bag and remove about 1/2 of the pulp and dump about 1/2 of the juice into another bucket and have two primary's going at once so there is more room in each or should i leave it as it is?

 

[UBB]

Issues I have noticed using this much fruit makes my 5gal primary extremely full. would it be best if i get out my other nylon bag and remove about 1/2 of the pulp and dump about 1/2 of the juice into another bucket and have two primary's going at once so there is more room in each or should i leave it as it is?

I would split between two fermenters.

 

[Dend78]

I would split between two fermenters.

that's kinda what i thought, i didnt realize just how much was there until i tried to lift it up and i was like

 

[ffemt128]

I have about 15-20 gallons of pears chopped up and frozen in my freezer now. It was a total of 67-70 lbs of pears. Once I free up some carboys I'll be thawing those for a press in hopes of getting 3-4 gallons of pure pear juice. Going to try this for the first time this year.

 

[UBB]

Can anyone with pear wine making experience try and explain what kind of wine pears make? Flavor profile ect

 

[dralarms]

I made one that was almost like a white grape wine. The longer it sits the better it gets.

IMHO, the 15 to 20 gals. of pears will make a real nice wine, I would ferment the fruit and then press the leftovers, it will take a while to clear but will result in a much better tasting wine with more volume.

 

[ffemt128]

I made one that was almost like a white grape wine. The longer it sits the better it gets.

IMHO, the 15 to 20 gals. of pears will make a real nice wine, I would ferment the fruit and then press the leftovers, it will take a while to clear but will result in a much better tasting wine with more volume.

I wanted to do this without adding any water just the pear juice. Not sure how I could ferment without first pressing to extract the juice. I could always press, then place the cake in a bag for further fermentation.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

One option is to freeze the pears to assist with their break down, then thaw and use a steam juicer to extract the juice. You could use the juice from all the pears you wanted and not have to worry about doubling up on primary fermenters.

 

[dralarms]

I added a small amount of water, it didn't seem to affect the flavor.

 

[Dend78]

One option is to freeze the pears to assist with their break down, then thaw and use a steam juicer to extract the juice. You could use the juice from all the pears you wanted and not have to worry about doubling up on primary fermenters.

i was thinking about this but i was a little to far along to back step and freeze and everything, so i split it into 2 primary's and upped the water to get the gravity around 1.080 in each so im looking at about 6 gallons total. I pitched the yeast last night in both buckets, using my first yeast starter! One bucket took off like a champ, the other one hasn't started yet or at least isnt as active as the other.

I do plan to freeze a few pounds of the green pears that I have and use some of the juice to back sweeten.



10/9/2012

well i officially suck at getting sugar and water mixed correctly, i need to let it sit for a while before pitching yeast after adjusting because yet again i pitched at 1.080ish and checked it last night both buckets were going well, checked juice from bucket 1) 1.104 bucket 2) 1.100

lesson finally learned grrrr


10/10/2012

well apparently my last reading was off because tonight
bucket 1) 1.034 (started fermenting first)
bucket 2) 1.050 (slower to start by about 12 hours)

10/11/2012

racked both buckets last night, i checked bucket 2 first and it was sitting at 1.005 so i put them in the carboy, i misjudged just how much liquid i actually had i am sitting around ~4 gallons after racking

10/16/2012

been holding steady at 1.000, i have been adding fresh pear juice as it melts out of the bag of frozen pears, once i feel good about the juice added I will recheck gravity and sugar up to around 1.030 and see how it tastes.

i did add k-meta and sorbate and a new thing I added to this was insinglass, never used it before so I will keep my findings which basically will be how long it takes to clear

 

[Dend78]

fermenting again not fast and hard but i am now getting bubbles out of the airlock every 15-30 seconds, i am going to rack this again to my smaller glass carboys and let them do their thing so I can use my 6gal carboy for my sherry

 

[Arne]

Think you probably added the sulfite and sorbate before it was quite finished. The sorbate stops the yeast reproduction, but doesn't kill off the yeast that is still alive. Not enough sulfite to wack em either, but you probably don't want to add that much. So now it will probably take quite some time to finish fermenting. Good luck with it, but this will probably give you a nice tasting wine. Arne.

 

[Deezil]

It could have warmed up some and just decided to degas, unless the SG has moved...

 

[Arne]

It could have warmed up some and just decided to degas, unless the SG has moved...

Right Deez, but what fun would that be. Wouldn't have to wonder what kind of high octane you are going to come out with. Either way, should come out ok. Good luck with it, Dend, Arne.

 

[Dend78]

well tonight i look and it seems to have slowed quite a bit almost to a complete stop, i should be fine I was shooting for no more than 12% so i should be just fine. either way im ready to drink it

 

[Arne]

well tonight i look and it seems to have slowed quite a bit almost to a complete stop, i should be fine I was shooting for no more than 12% so i should be just fine. either way im ready to drink it

We must come from the same mold. Get er done and drink it. lol, Arne.

 

[Dend78]

we gotta be like that, cant store all this wine for to long, gotta empty up carboy's and primary's

well it seems to have slowed back down i will be checking the gravity again here in a day or so to see where i am at.

 

[Dend78]

okay racked again to 1gal carboys last night needed the big carboy, still getting a funny taste but it reminds me of the dragons blood i made a while back where i used bentonite so im thinking that may be it, still its very cloudy, i may even toss in some sparkolloid will that cause problems?

bentonite in primary, insingalss added then sparkolloid? also would it be helpful to add pectic enzyme again to help with the haze?


10/25/2012

I added in pectic enzyme to help this clear out some more will update again when there is something significant

 

[Dend78]

racked again had about an inch in each carboy, found some pear juice at kroger so added 32oz of pear juice and 1 cup of sugar, this whole thing is now sitting at about 5 gallons after topping everything up for a second time

 

[Dend78]

wow this has cleared a ton!!! i was really expecting a bear to clear cause i really put the squeeze on the pulp but another couple of weeks should be clear enough to see through.