Weak tasting and unclear Pear Wine

[spyder89]

Anyone have suggestions on how to liven up a wine that is about to be bottled? Also it isn't exactly clear yet and it's almost at the year mark. What do I do to get it to clear?

What I have is a 6 gallon batch of Pear wine from bartlett pears. I followed this recipe x6 for most everything on it. One problem I did have is that I had to add some water after the primary fermentation to make the 6 gallons as the fruit took up too much room in the primary fermenter.

Bartlett Pear Wine Recipe

6 lbs ripe pears
1 12-oz can 100% White Grape frozen concentrate
1-3/4 lb finely granulated sugar
3 qts water
1/8 tsp ascorbic acid
1-1/2 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/8 tsp grape tannin
1 crushed Campden tablet
1-1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet Champagne yeast

A pair of ripe Bartlett pears
Boil the water and dissolve the sugar into it thoroughly. Wash, destem and core the pears, being sure to remove all seeds. I quarter them length-ways and cut out the small seedy core. It is not that time consuming. Chop roughly and put in nylon straining. Tie bag and put in primary. Mash pears using a potato masher, bottom of a wine bottle, or a 4X4 piece of wood (be sure to sanitize whatever is used to mash pears). Pour boiling water over crushed pears. Cover with sanitized cloth. Wait one hour for must to cool a bit and add crushed ascorbic acid, Campden tablet, acid blend, tannin and yeast nutrient. Cover with cloth, wait 12 hours and add pectic enzyme. Again cover with cloth, wait another 12 hours and strain out enough juice to float a hydrometer. Measure specific gravity and add sugar sufficient to achieve starting gravity of 1.080 to 1.085. Pear wine is best under 12% alcohol. Return juice in hydrometer jar to primary and add activated yeast in a yeast starter. Cover with cloth once again. Stir daily, turning bag over each time. When vigorous fermentation subsides (about 5-7 days), remove bag and let drip drain 15-20 minutes. Do not squeeze or wine will be very difficult to clear. Taste the drained juice. You should taste both acid and tannin. If either appears weak, add a little more (1/2 teaspoon acid blend, 1/8 teaspoon tannin) and stir very well. Return drained juice to primary and allow to settle 24 hours. Rack into glass secondary, top up to within one inch of the bottom of the bung, attach an airlock, and set aside. Rack after three weeks, top up, and refit airlock. Rack again every two months until wine clears. Wait another 30 days and very carefully examine the bottom of the secondary with a flashlight. If you see even a very fine dusting of sediment, wait another 30 days and rack again. Repeat looking for sediment in another 30 days. The wine must go 30 days without dropping even a few dead yeast cells. When wine pasts the test for no sediment, stabilize it with 1/2 teaspoon potassium sorbate and one finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet. Remove one cup of the wine and dissolve into it 1/4 pound (1/2 cup) of finely granulated sugar or honey. When completely dissolved, stir this into the wine, reattach the airlock, and set aside 30 days. If there are no signs of renewed fermentation, rack into bottles and age 6-12 months. [Author's own recipe]

 

[cmason1957]

What is the current ph and TA of your wine? My guess is that you need to add acid to help liven it up. Pear is often hard to clear, I always double or triple the pectic called for. You can ac some now and wait. As I recall Jack Keller site has a detailed method to add the pectin enzyme. The first pear I made I followed that procedure twice and my wine finally cleared.

 

[spyder89]

What is the current ph and TA of your wine? My guess is that you need to add acid to help liven it up. Pear is often hard to clear, I always double or triple the pectic called for. You can ac some now and wait. As I recall Jack Keller site has a detailed method to add the pectin enzyme. The first pear I made I followed that procedure twice and my wine finally cleared.

As per suggestion of staff from the Homebrew store in my neighborhood I went with Super Kleer. I dropped it in last night and will hopefully see some results tonight. As for the ph and TA I will see if I can get some readings tonight. I know the ph was around 3.4 last time I racked it which was a couple of months ago. I haven't measured the TA yet because I didn't have a kit but now I do.

 

[Arne]

Pear makes a great wine, but the flavor is rather mild. It is best to make it with pure juice, that way you get the advantage of all the flavor in the pears. You used water in the recipe, then watered it again to topup. The flavor will be less pronounced because it is diluted. Only way I know of to up the flavor is maybe find some frozen concentrate to add to it (I don't even know if they make sucha thing in pear.) Otherwise, you mite try blending it with something like apple which isn't a strong wine either. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[Turock]

Yeah, I agree with Arne. Next time you make it, don't use water. Plus, 6# of pears for 6 gallons will get you nowhere. You should have had 60-70 pounds of pears for 6 gallons.

As far as pectic enzyme goes, do what cmason said--double or triple the dose OR go to a better de-pectinizer such as Lallzyme C-Max. It's very good on viscous musts such as pear. Also on the 2nd or 3rd day of the ferment, add a dose of bentonite. Without bentonite, we have a hard time clearing pear. The Lallzyme helps with clearing the wine, too.

Bartlett pear is one of the best pears to use as far as flavor goes.

Don't bottle it while it's cloudy. If the Super Kleer doesn't clear it up, then add a dose of pectic enzyme to the carboy--that often works. As far as being thin, the only thing to do with it is to blend. Since it's now pear season, you should get yourself 50-60 pounds of pears and make 5 gallons to try again. Freeze the pears or shred them--use no water.

The other thing about Bartlett is that with no water dilution, the malic is kind of harsh so use 71B yeast on it. Otherwise, it can take 2 years for the wine to smooth out. 71B does a nice job on Bartlett.

Don't be afraid to ask us to help walk you thru another pear ferment if you want to try this again. Pear is a really nice wine.

 

[RegarRenill]

I don't know if it will help, but Goya makes a pear "nectar", usually found in the ethnic foods aisle...seems to be just concentrated juice, I'll check tonight when I go to. the store and make sure there isn't added sugars or HFCS.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[homesteader26]

Following along as I am going to start a 1 gallon batch this weekend

 

[Turock]

homesteader--why don't you make, at least, 3 gallons of it? You put as much effort into 1 gallon as 3 gallons. If cost of the fruit is an issue to you, ask the orchards in your area if they have "second" pears. They will often sell these cheap. Also, you can use "trash" fruit. Ask them for their bruised and over-ripe pears. We often pay 25 cants a pound for trash fruit. Just cut out the bruised areas. Over-ripe pears make a fantastic wine.

If you feel you're way out in the bushes on how to do pear wine, don't be afraid to ask us to walk you thru it. You'll learn more by doing bigger batches than by sticking with 1 gallon ferments.

Regar has a good suggestion there--that pear nectar could be a winner to bulk up the flavor on that weak batch. But be sure the wine is clear before adding it because you'll need to use sorbate with it and you can't use sorbate in cloudy wine.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

cidersupply.com makes a specific pectinase for pears, some special arabinose or something pears have in them make them hard to clear. Not sure why you went thru all the trouble to core peel and deseed your pears, lot of wasted work. As often quoted by Turock, 100% juice especially for something as lite at pear. WVMJ

 

[homesteader26]

Turock I hadn't thought of doing a bigger batch mostly because I liked the idea of making a wine from the pears my tree grew. $$ not an issue but I will think about purchasing some so I can make more to learn and play with. Thx - I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions!!

 

[homesteader26]

WVMJ i don't need to core and deseed? The apple I was advised to remove seeds so I figured pear would be similar. I've never even tasted a pear wine but it sounds good!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Dont need to do that to apples either. Look up scratter, is an apple grinding mill, you just drop the whole apple in there and it gets shredded into smaller bits, the bits are then dumped into a press and the juice squeezed out, works equally well on pears. Maybe not so good with a juicer? but you should soon upgrade since you have your own tree and are going to start taking care of it to get it to produce many more pounds of pears to make pear cider from, you can even sweeten it up a little before fermenting with honey to give it a little body boost. WVMJ

 

[spyder89]

Yeah, I agree with Arne. Next time you make it, don't use water. Plus, 6# of pears for 6 gallons will get you nowhere. You should have had 60-70 pounds of pears for 6 gallons.

As far as pectic enzyme goes, do what cmason said--double or triple the dose OR go to a better de-pectinizer such as Lallzyme C-Max. It's very good on viscous musts such as pear. Also on the 2nd or 3rd day of the ferment, add a dose of bentonite. Without bentonite, we have a hard time clearing pear. The Lallzyme helps with clearing the wine, too.

Bartlett pear is one of the best pears to use as far as flavor goes.

Don't bottle it while it's cloudy. If the Super Kleer doesn't clear it up, then add a dose of pectic enzyme to the carboy--that often works. As far as being thin, the only thing to do with it is to blend. Since it's now pear season, you should get yourself 50-60 pounds of pears and make 5 gallons to try again. Freeze the pears or shred them--use no water.

The other thing about Bartlett is that with no water dilution, the malic is kind of harsh so use 71B yeast on it. Otherwise, it can take 2 years for the wine to smooth out. 71B does a nice job on Bartlett.

Don't be afraid to ask us to help walk you thru another pear ferment if you want to try this again. Pear is a really nice wine.

I did the recipe x6 for most of the ingredients. This was my first wine making experience and I followed the recipe really closely. I even wrote Jack Keller on his blog asking him what to do when making a larger batch while following his recipe. The approximate amount of pears I used was between 40-50 lbs. One thing I didn't do was squeeze the pears to extract as much juice as possible. I have read articles that say don't squeeze the produce because the wine won't clear and then I have recently read to freeze the pears and squeeze the crap out of them. Which do you do?

 

[spyder89]

Yeah, I agree with Arne. Next time you make it, don't use water. Plus, 6# of pears for 6 gallons will get you nowhere. You should have had 60-70 pounds of pears for 6 gallons.

As far as pectic enzyme goes, do what cmason said--double or triple the dose OR go to a better de-pectinizer such as Lallzyme C-Max. It's very good on viscous musts such as pear. Also on the 2nd or 3rd day of the ferment, add a dose of bentonite. Without bentonite, we have a hard time clearing pear. The Lallzyme helps with clearing the wine, too.

Bartlett pear is one of the best pears to use as far as flavor goes.

Don't bottle it while it's cloudy. If the Super Kleer doesn't clear it up, then add a dose of pectic enzyme to the carboy--that often works. As far as being thin, the only thing to do with it is to blend. Since it's now pear season, you should get yourself 50-60 pounds of pears and make 5 gallons to try again. Freeze the pears or shred them--use no water.

The other thing about Bartlett is that with no water dilution, the malic is kind of harsh so use 71B yeast on it. Otherwise, it can take 2 years for the wine to smooth out. 71B does a nice job on Bartlett.

Don't be afraid to ask us to help walk you thru another pear ferment if you want to try this again. Pear is a really nice wine.

Turock, I am doing another batch this year. Unfortunately I started it a few days ago and I am following this recipe again. What I am doing differently this year is I have split the batch into two buckets instead of one. Last year I didn't have enough space in one bucket because the fruit took up too much space and I ended up watering the must down to fill the carboy on the first racking. Hopefully it will turn out better.

 

[spyder89]

homesteader--why don't you make, at least, 3 gallons of it? You put as much effort into 1 gallon as 3 gallons. If cost of the fruit is an issue to you, ask the orchards in your area if they have "second" pears. They will often sell these cheap. Also, you can use "trash" fruit. Ask them for their bruised and over-ripe pears. We often pay 25 cants a pound for trash fruit. Just cut out the bruised areas. Over-ripe pears make a fantastic wine.

If you feel you're way out in the bushes on how to do pear wine, don't be afraid to ask us to walk you thru it. You'll learn more by doing bigger batches than by sticking with 1 gallon ferments.

Regar has a good suggestion there--that pear nectar could be a winner to bulk up the flavor on that weak batch. But be sure the wine is clear before adding it because you'll need to use sorbate with it and you can't use sorbate in cloudy wine.

Turock, would fresh pear juice be a good option to bulk up the flavor? I have a farm near by that sells fresh fruit juices for wine making. You might be asking yourself why I didn't use their juice in the first place to make the wine and the reason is cost(about $65 for 5 gallons of pear juice) and more importantly I have a pear tree with free pears. If fresh pear juice is a good way to bulk up the flavor should I just freeze some pears off my tree this year and use the juice from them to bulk up the flavor?

 

[Turock]

spyder--That's a real good idea to use some of the pears to bulk the flavor up later on. I thought of that when someone mentioned the pear nectar, but didn't know if you had to BUY more pears to do that or not. I agree--that juice IS expensive. Freeze up some pears in order to do an f-pac later on.

When we do pear, we bag the fruit--and we DO squeeze the bags quite a bit. Using better pectic enzymes, as we mentioned, AND bentoniting the primary goes a long way to getting the wine to clear. However, we don't press this fruit--just squeeze the bags out by hand in order to not get the remaining solids into the wine.

An easier way to handle large batches of fruit is to buy yourself a Brute trash can at the big box store. We have 20 gallon and 32 gallon Brutes so that no matter how much fruit or grapes we work with, we can handle the batch. You need to have room in a vat--for stirring, squeezing bags, and room for the ferment because some cultures can produce a lot of foam and you don't want it to over-run the vat. Two years in a row, we did 2000# of grapes---all done in 32 gallon Brutes. It worked out great.

There ARE reason to use water in some ferments. But a fruit like pear only suffers from water additions. I really suggest you not use it--you'll be surprised how good pear wine can be when you don't water it down.

homesteader----Don't be afraid to ask us questions. Many of us enjoy helping the new winemakers and we would rather have you ask us questions BEFORE you do things, instead of asking us once you're in trouble.

 

[spyder89]

spyder--That's a real good idea to use some of the pears to bulk the flavor up later on. I thought of that when someone mentioned the pear nectar, but didn't know if you had to BUY more pears to do that or not. I agree--that juice IS expensive. Freeze up some pears in order to do an f-pac later on.

When we do pear, we bag the fruit--and we DO squeeze the bags quite a bit. Using better pectic enzymes, as we mentioned, AND bentoniting the primary goes a long way to getting the wine to clear. However, we don't press this fruit--just squeeze the bags out by hand in order to not get the remaining solids into the wine.

An easier way to handle large batches of fruit is to buy yourself a Brute trash can at the big box store. We have 20 gallon and 32 gallon Brutes so that no matter how much fruit or grapes we work with, we can handle the batch. You need to have room in a vat--for stirring, squeezing bags, and room for the ferment because some cultures can produce a lot of foam and you don't want it to over-run the vat. Two years in a row, we did 2000# of grapes---all done in 32 gallon Brutes. It worked out great.

There ARE reason to use water in some ferments. But a fruit like pear only suffers from water additions. I really suggest you not use it--you'll be surprised how good pear wine can be when you don't water it down.

homesteader----Don't be afraid to ask us questions. Many of us enjoy helping the new winemakers and we would rather have you ask us questions BEFORE you do things, instead of asking us once you're in trouble.

Turock, What is an f-pac? You mean flavor pack right? What should be in it and what size do you think it should be for addition to a 6 gallon batch?

Thank you btw for all your help.

 

[Turock]

Yes--flavor pack. Are you talking about the 6 gallons that you only used 6# of pears in??? Well--it would take a tremendous amount of pears to fix that!! What you're trying to do with that batch is turn water into wine and......we all know there's only ONE person who ever did that successfully.

But the way to do an f-pac is to run the fruit thru a food processor along with sugar. Then put that mash into a bag and allow the juice to run out of the bag. Then add that juice to the carboy along with meta and sorbate. But don't do this until the wine is clear all sediment racked from it because you can't sorbate cloudy wine. You'll need to allow it to clear again before bottling. I would say that to bulk up flavor, if it's not too weak, you'd need 1 or 2 pounds of fruit for the f-pac.

 

[sour_grapes]

He used 40 to 50 lbs of pears.

 

[spyder89]

I love your reply.
When I say I've done this recipe x6 I mean that I have multiplied it times 6. I used approximately 40# of pears in both batches of pear wine that I have going. One batch(the weak flavored one) is clearing with Super Kleer right now and the other I just started. The weak flavored one does have pear flavor in it just not as much as I'd like. I will freeze 2# of pears and try this flavor pack recipe. What type of bag are you referring to? And you say not to add the sorbate to cloudy wine so should I wait to add the sorbate after I add the fresh juice and that clears?