Pear juice seems thick ...

[Prawn]

Hi all, I'm having a first shot at making some pear cider and wonder whether anyone can give any input. Not entirely sure on the pear type but picked them last week, washed them with boiled water, cut off the stems and juiced them using a juicer. However ... the juice came out more like a goopy sauce than actual 'juice'. I ended up out with about 17 litres of the stuff and then pitched some cider yeast. Haven't seen any activity in the air lock yet ( been about 12hours as I'm writing this). I tried to take a starting gravity reading but not sure how accurate it is when the liquid is so thick - came out at 1.054

I wondered about whether I should be putting in some pectic enzyme or actually whether I should have strained it before putting it in the fermenter now ... Will the yeast be able to work on thick juice? Any one have any experiences of making pear cider using a juicer in this way? Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

Thanks
Lewis

 

[Dutto]

No experience of Perry or Cider but if there is sugar present then the yeast will take off regardless!

Be patient and hope you have enough head-space when it starts to ferment!

 

[Prawn]

Ok update on the pear cider - it has bubbled away for a week now and has been quiet for 2 days so thanks for the good advice on being patient!

I opened up the lid of the fermenter today and found that there was a thick layer of 'cake' on the top - which I presume is all the pulp should I
1.continue to wait for it to sink
2.push it down and stir it back in
3. Rack off by going underneath the layer

Thanks all!

 

[chthon]

Ok update on the pear cider - it has bubbled away for a week now and has been quiet for 2 days so thanks for the good advice on being patient!

I opened up the lid of the fermenter today and found that there was a thick layer of 'cake' on the top - which I presume is all the pulp should I
1.continue to wait for it to sink
2.push it down and stir it back in
3. Rack off by going underneath the layer

Thanks all!

Good question. I have the same with my apple "juice". I actually added 1 l sugar water (OG = 1.040) to make it a little bit more fluid. However, the fermentation has also taken off. Now I probably have the same layer of "cake" on my cider.

 

[Dutto]

The layer on the top is called the “krausen”.

By “quiet” I presume it doesn’t bubble whenever you are looking! This may mean that the fermentation is not completed!

I suggest you just leave it alone for another week or so (to ensure that fermentation is completed) and then move on to stabilise, clear and bottle.

The stabilisation process generally removes the krausen by sending it to the bottom. If not, then de-gassing the brew, prior to clearing, should do the job.

After bottling comes conditioning, so it should be ready to drink by the time everyone is singing Christmas carols!

Enjoy!

 

[Prawn]

Ok thanks - yeh wasn't sure if it is called krausen for cider or it was just for beer?
I'll leave it another week now thanks for the advice.

What do you use to stabilise your pear cider? I was going to let it come to a natural end by leaving it for a few more weeks after racking into second fermenter.

Cheers

 

[Dutto]

For wine, if it isn’t included in the kit, I use this from Wilko …

https://www.wilko.com/wilko-wine-st...JRTYt31c6HRCo_ckuCxoC77AQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


PS
With a “natural end”, the problem is that it may not have ended!

 

[chthon]

Ok thanks - yeh wasn't sure if it is called krausen for cider or it was just for beer?
I'll leave it another week now thanks for the advice.

What do you use to stabilise your pear cider? I was going to let it come to a natural end by leaving it for a few more weeks after racking into second fermenter.

Cheers

I don't think it is kraüsen in my case, but just proteins and apple cell remains which form a cake. I think I will rack it to a DJ this weekend, let it ferment out and keep it there until my next batch of apples. Because this is now from my summer apples, I have still a bunch of autumn apples to be harvested at the end of September. I think part of these are more bitter, and I want to blend both batches.

 

[Prawn]

1 week later and still seeing the krausen/cake on top so I've attached some photos to see if anyone's advice changes going back to my original dilemma... thanks!

I opened up the lid of the fermenter today and found that there was a thick layer of 'cake' on the top - which I presume is all the pulp should I
1.continue to wait for it to sink
2.push it down and stir it back in
3. Rack off by going underneath the layer

 

[Cwrw666]

Skim as much off as you can. Then I'd transfer to another bucket before bottling, straining it through mesh of some kind - I'd use my biab bag.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

If you‘ve got a noticeable amount of liquid with the pulp / krausen on the top, then you can strain this out by tipping the contents of your first fermenting vessel into a second sterilised one.

inside the second vessel you can put a piece of muslin cloth loosely draped and peg it around the outside at 12 clock positions. Don’t stretch it tight, otherwise the liquid will bounce off like it is hitting a drum.

I do this to get the elderflowers out of elderflower turbo cider.

it is best done will the brew is still fermenting, then it will continue, and put a protective layer of CO2 over the brew.

I’ve made Perry several times using a garden shredder as a grinding mechanism, and a cider press using muslin bags to strain the pulp. However, every time I’ve made it, I find that it tastes fantastic at the bottling stage, but seems to go off after about 6 months.

I don’t get this problem with apples, and have never bottomed it out.

Drinking it with the Christmas Carols is good advice.

if my explanation isn‘t clear for the straining, then I’ll put you up a photo, if required.

 

[Prawn]

Skimmed off the cake and transferred to 2 demijohns today! Tasted OK at this stage (3 weeks in) at approx 6.4% any recommendations on how long to leave in these before final bottling? I think I'll bottle half as still and the other half I'll carbonate.

 

[Prawn]

Time for another update here - just about 4 weeks later there seems to be some white 'stuff' on the surface of one demijohn - does it look infected?

 

[Shirley Bassett]

Have you tried tasting it?

I would sterilise a turkey baster and get about 50ml out to try in a wine glass.