Seat of the pants Perry.

[ScottM]

I really enjoy perry cider and whilst I'm fairly certain I won't get anything even close to the real deal I decided to just jump in with 2 feet and go for it.

Equipment:

1 DJ
1 Funnel
1 Juicer
1 Bung
1 Airlock
1 Sieve

Ingredients:

4KG of Pears
1L Grape Juice
400g Honey
2tsp Pectolase
1/2 tsp Tannin
1 tsp Nutrient
1 tsp Yeast


End result...

The airlock is bubbling slowly already. Although it's not exactly screaming YUMMY at me yet

 

[liampenn]

wow, although its looks... rather green its still looks strangly appealing. :thumb:
How did the 'juicer' go?
I'm thinking of doing the same but with a cheapo juicer from argos?
Liam

 

[oldbloke]

Looks OK. Lots of pulp in pears, gonna rack it and top up at some point, or just put up with reduced yield?
I'm doing a turboperry based on Meridian concentrate, no pulp, huzzah!

 

[ScottM]

wow, although its looks... rather green its still looks strangly appealing. :thumb:
How did the 'juicer' go?
I'm thinking of doing the same but with a cheapo juicer from argos?
Liam

Juicer was fantastic, excellent bit of kit. Obviously it's not ideal for this purpose as squeezing would be best but when life gives you pears... make perry... or something like that.

Looks OK. Lots of pulp in pears, gonna rack it and top up at some point, or just put up with reduced yield?
I'm doing a turboperry based on Meridian concentrate, no pulp, huzzah!

I'm hoping to rack it and top it up, fingers crossed it clears enough to do so properly. The yield was 1.055 to start with so even removing all the pulp it should still be reasonable for a wee drink. That's the trouble with doing things this way though, there really is no way to know what the actual yield of the drink is lol.

 

[ScottM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIyidkVkNAU

It's going for it :)

 

[ScottM]

Amazingly it's finished already.

I just racked it into a secondary to get it off the pulp.

 

[liampenn]

:thumb: Have you tasted it yet? :lol:

 

[Crastney]

it looks a bit green in the first pic - are you sure you didn't include any of those Kiwis?

it probably could have been topped up further after the initial vigorous ferment, to just below the top fo the shoulder.
it certainly should be topped up in the secondary ferment to that level, to reduce the amount of air in the DJ, but also to reduce the area of liquid exposed to the air.

technically you need to use real Perry pears* to call it Perry, otherwise with any old pears its called Pear Cider, even if it's just pears and no apples.
any combination of apple and pear juice is also called Pear Cider... confusingly.

* this is a generic term for several varieties of pear - which I don't know of the top of my head. Conference, and Williams pears, for instance, the two most available, are not perry pears.

 

[ScottM]

:thumb: Have you tasted it yet? :lol:

Not yet, the pears were very under-ripe so I'm going to leave it for a bit off the pulp and check it when I come back from Spain

it looks a bit green in the first pic - are you sure you didn't include any of those Kiwis?

it probably could have been topped up further after the initial vigorous ferment, to just below the top fo the shoulder.
it certainly should be topped up in the secondary ferment to that level, to reduce the amount of air in the DJ, but also to reduce the area of liquid exposed to the air.

technically you need to use real Perry pears* to call it Perry, otherwise with any old pears its called Pear Cider, even if it's just pears and no apples.
any combination of apple and pear juice is also called Pear Cider... confusingly.

* this is a generic term for several varieties of pear - which I don't know of the top of my head. Conference, and Williams pears, for instance, the two most available, are not perry pears.

Yeah I had a look into getting perry pears but it's an absolute nightmare. I can't even remember the type of pears I used but I cleared the rack out in Asda lol. It was the smart price variety that they offer in 650g bags.

The reason for it being so green is that I used a juicer and didn't bother peeling the pears (or even washing them). I just dumped the lot into a DJ with a couple of campden tablets. I then gave it a couple of hours before dropping in the yeast.

It's been transferred and I've topped it up. Strangely the most vigorous part of the fermentation was yesterday, I would have topped it up to the shoulder today if it hadn't stopped by today. It was a REALLY quick one, that super wine yeast definitely doesn't hang about.

 

[liampenn]

it probably could have been topped up further after the initial vigorous ferment, to just below the top fo the shoulder.
it certainly should be topped up in the secondary ferment to that level, to reduce the amount of air in the DJ, but also to reduce the area of liquid exposed to the air.

Im a little confused. Why does he have to top it up so it reaches the neck of the DJ? :hmm:

 

[ScottM]

it probably could have been topped up further after the initial vigorous ferment, to just below the top fo the shoulder.
it certainly should be topped up in the secondary ferment to that level, to reduce the amount of air in the DJ, but also to reduce the area of liquid exposed to the air.

Im a little confused. Why does he have to top it up so it reaches the neck of the DJ? :hmm:

During and after fermentation air is your brews enemy. You want as little air as possible in contact with the liquor. During fermentation this isn't an issue as the CO2 produced by the yeast is heavier than air and thus creates a blanket on top of it. Once fermentation has finished and you rack into a secondary the headspace is obviously air. You want the minimal amount of air in contact so you top it up to the neck, where the amount of area in contact will be at a minimum.

HTH

 

[liampenn]

Okay im going to go top up my toffee apple pear cider thats maturing in the demijohn...
:lol:

 

[Crastney]

Further to Scott M's excellent reply - it's to do with the ratio 'volume of liquid to area of exposed liquid'.
thus a very large container can get away with a larger area exposed - large brewery vats don't have or need a 'shoulder'.
brewing in a 5 gal FV there is a distinct area where the vessell narrows. With a 1 gal DJ it's the shoulder to the rather small neck opening, anything done in a smaller volume container will be a lot more likely to suffer.

 

[RobWalker]

I love those sports direct mugs, they're huge. Some mornings a regular brew just isn't enough.

Looks delish. Maybe closer to a wine with the 500g honey, at least I drink my toffee apple from a wine glass :

 

[shearclass]

I love those sports direct mugs, they're huge.

I am a NUFC fan, so I have my own opinion on Sports Direct and their mugs...



:twisted:

 

[ScottM]

I love those sports direct mugs, they're huge. Some mornings a regular brew just isn't enough.

Looks delish. Maybe closer to a wine with the 500g honey, at least I drink my toffee apple from a wine glass :

Ha just spotted this. Yeah they are monsters. My Wife needs 2 teabags to fill one


Anyway...... decided to pull this down from the loft to get a gander. Well what do you know... it cleared!!

Racked it into bottles with 4g sugar in each. Only got 7 out of it as one of the necks cracked while putting the cap on

Not to worry though, it had the nose of bong water and tasted a bit like grass after it's been recycled by a cow. I don't hold out much hope for this working out at all, I'll probably just hand it out to anyone who asks for some free homebrew, that way they won't ask again

On another note, I think it's the skins that's caused the issue. I think if I was to use the juicer again I would definitely need to peel off the skins and core them.

 

[RobWalker]

looks bloody delicious scott!

 

[ScottM]

looks bloody delicious scott!

I'm not holding out much hope unfortunately. I'll give it another month in the bottle and see where its at. It tasted rank though lol.

 

[liampenn]

I found some wild pear trees down the road from me. Looks like I will defiantly be giving this a shot!
What do you recon has gone wrong with yours? :hmm:

 

[ScottM]

I found some wild pear trees down the road from me. Looks like I will defiantly be giving this a shot!
What do you recon has gone wrong with yours? :hmm:

Other than the skins?