Pear Cider Recipe needed? Can anyone help?

[andyBandy]

Hi all,

I work in the Vale of Evesham and currently making the most of the forgotten orchards most would be unbelievably jealous of.

This yr i have discovered victoria plum, yellow plum, damson orchards, apple orchards (discovery,bramley, worcester amongst a few) and most recently pear orchard with a good 100+ trees.
i do check before taking and get consent but most of these orchards havnt been harvested in over 5 yrs plus. the hedgerows are littered with trees too.

i've made several batches plum wine and about 20g of various apple ciders.

i have created one batch of cider using just discovery apples and every apple was bright red inside and it created a bright red juice which has yet to have changed colour but expect taste will so experiment and see.... didnt cost anything after all

anyhow, i have picked today a good 100kg+ of pears and although hard i will leave to ripen until ready to juice


DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE/RECIPIES ON MAKING PEAR CIDER?

do i just do the same as cider or do i need to approach differently? ive read that pressing can be different as you can get a sludggy liquid.

help required please..

 

[Peapodmaster]

i personally have heard that you do it the same way, others may say differently but i say do the same as you normally would for apples. same ammount of pectolase yeast nutrient etc etc.

good luck!

I envy you (i'm a Cyder lad)

 

[Crastney]

Whereabouts in the Vale of Evesham?

I got my fruit from a farm that my parents know the owners - half way between the Berkley Arms, and the Berkley Knot (probably not called those names anymore), near Spetchley PYO fruit farm.

nice part of the world.

 

[second2none]

Boiling pear juice really spoils the flavours, just a little tip for you.

Cinnamon goes beautifull with pears, id really recomend adding some,
if you heat a some in a pan to "crack" the spice you will get much more flavours comming throu

Pears juice contains alot of sediment and people that have tried to make pear cider (perry)
have often been worrded by the pure amounts, which is reall unesseserry but u might like to take this
into consideration when leaving space at the top of ur FB or DJ :)

Good luck and look forward to hearing ur recipe and results!

 

[andyBandy]

thanks guys,

i think im going to appoach this same way as cider then but thinking may drain juice through muslin to try and fine the juice as best can.

plenty pectolase agreed as i have tasted some quite hazy pear ciders in time.


trees everwhere in vale. theres a load of trees stocked up with apples by vale country garden centre. starting to fall now.....

will post some pics as soon as pears ripen and i extract juice.


cheers all.

 

[second2none]

alot of ur pear flavours are in the pulpy bits, i wouldnt strain it first rather than stivk it all in and then strain it out after a few days so you get ther very most out of it! Just another way to think of it

 

[andyBandy]

very true,

i've read that real perry is mashed first and left to macerate for 24-48hrs prior to press first to allow max flavour come through.

good call on that!

 

[cralou]

My brother is in middle of making some pear cider, ill ask him to sign up to forum and spill the beans on what he does.

 

[reebok]

Currently fermenting my first batch (14 gallons) of perry made from the fruit of two garden trees (see my posting under 'Brew Days').
Apart from leaving the scratted pulp to sit overnight before pressing (not really sure why, but that's the wisdom) I've treated it just like cider. Added pectolase too as I'm aiming for a clear finished product. Initial fermentation was explosive but it settled down in a couple of days. Racked off the other week and while there was a sediment it wasn't excessive, little different from apple cider. Nice colour, very yellow.
Are your pears true perry pears or just dessert types? I would imagine perry pears would contain a fair amount of tannin so I considered adding tannin to the juice but decided just a leave it 'au naturel' and see what it produced.

 

[andyBandy]

Hi All,

Apologies for delay in posting, i have been waiting for the pears to ripen.....

I used a mixture of conference and concorde pears. They can be low in tannins sochanged strategy slightly.

A friend took me to an old press where him and his folks were pressing cider apples and storing into whiskey barrels.

My batch is made up roughly 60-70% pear and the rest cider apples, little red, little green (unsure names) & yarlington mill i believe which are high in tannins and natural yeast. intend to add pectolase to this tomorrow and get bunged up!

cheers,

andyBandy

 

[charley]

ive just made 2 gallons of pear cider this week, and today and making apple
my recipe for pear is your still interested is as follows

wash,chop,crush,press...
leave juice a day in bucket with one crushed camp-den tab,
next stage add yeast (i started mine off first although not sure this was necessary??)
then left in bucket coverd for 4/5 days fermenting
then into demijohns. had to top up as didn't have enough pear juice but both now blopping away one looks very brown an murky the other a rather festerous yellow :shock: but im totally new to this cider lark so lord knows what it will taste like :grin:

 

[charley]

havin just completed my first stage of cider... i didnt bother to chop the apples as they were pretty small i jus smashed em whole with a lump of wood .. i chopped al the pears an now i realise this was an awful unnessesary ballache!! still. its all a learning curve i dont think id av got away with smashin bigger apples id hav to chop them first atleast in half! :mrgreen: