# Pear!!!



## Dend78 (Oct 8, 2012)

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?


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## UBB (Oct 8, 2012)

Dend78 said:


> 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.


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## Dend78 (Oct 8, 2012)

UBB said:


> 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


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## ffemt128 (Oct 8, 2012)

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.


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## UBB (Oct 8, 2012)

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


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## dralarms (Oct 8, 2012)

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.


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## ffemt128 (Oct 8, 2012)

dralarms said:


> 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.


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## roadwarriorsvt (Oct 8, 2012)

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.


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## dralarms (Oct 8, 2012)

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


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## Dend78 (Oct 9, 2012)

roadwarriorsvt said:


> 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


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## Dend78 (Oct 19, 2012)

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


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## Arne (Oct 20, 2012)

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.


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## Deezil (Oct 20, 2012)

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


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## Arne (Oct 20, 2012)

Deezil said:


> 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.


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## Dend78 (Oct 21, 2012)

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


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## Arne (Oct 22, 2012)

Dend78 said:


> 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.


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## Dend78 (Oct 23, 2012)

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.


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## Dend78 (Oct 25, 2012)

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


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## Dend78 (Oct 30, 2012)

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


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## Dend78 (Nov 5, 2012)

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.


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## Arne (Nov 6, 2012)

Glad yours is clearing. Mine is still cloudy as can be. Havn't tried anything to clear it yet, tho. Probably won't til spring now. The temps are going down in the basement but it will sit just fine for a few months. Racked a bunch of lees off and will again as time goes on. Good luck with yours, Arne.


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## Dend78 (Nov 6, 2012)

awesome, i used bentonite in primary, insinglass and i added more pectic enzyme in secondary to help it along, the lee's are pretty crazy, like i racked it and had half an inch on second racking the following day. i will post up some pics soon, its still cloudy but i can see through it now where as before no way not a chance lol.

how will you be sweetening yours?


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## ffemt128 (Nov 9, 2012)

Look forward to seeing some pics. Once I transfer mine to carboys I'll post a pic in my thread as well.


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## Norton (Nov 11, 2012)

I made a few gallons of pear wine last year using Jack Keller recipe for Asian apple pears. I didn't use any bentonite and it cleared fine .


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## Dend78 (Nov 12, 2012)

yeah,i tried out bentonite just to see if it would speed it up, i know pear can be a hard one to clear sometimes so i was trying everything i could think of to get it to clear quickly. as of this morning I was able to help a paper on one side of the jug and see that there is text on the paper. you can see each letter just to fuzzy to read what it says. another 2 weeks and it should be about ready to bottle, YAY time to make something else!!!!


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## Dend78 (Nov 13, 2012)

tasted the pear last night and wow, it tastes terrible 

im kinda thinking its the same issue i had last time i used bentonite in primary, it gets a very bitter taste and it takes a while to mellow out. Young alcohol was for sure there but the bitter taste was very forward. again I had the same issue with my first attempt at dragons blood and it went away around 1 month, this may be the last time i use bentonite in the primary. i will make another batch of pear later on and see what i come up with.

i will keep you all posted on changes


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## Julie (Nov 13, 2012)

Pear takes a really long time to come into its flavor. I won't drink it unless it is a year and a half old. bentonite should not be imparting any off flavors to your wine.


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## Dend78 (Nov 13, 2012)

hmm well i will rack it again soon then once clear i will bottle it and let it sit, im gonna have to push some dragons blood in a big way lol i need some quick easy drinkers my stash is running low


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## dralarms (Nov 13, 2012)

Yes, that pear will take about 6 months before the flavor begins to come around.


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## Dend78 (Nov 13, 2012)

well it for sure needs to come around, im ready to drink some, why does this have to take so long


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## dralarms (Nov 13, 2012)

Make some welshes. Its drinkable early. Lol


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## Dend78 (Nov 15, 2012)

dralarms said:


> Make some welshes. Its drinkable early. Lol



already there 

just trying to get this cold stabilization thing right lil to much acid 

I did rack this again and added my last bottle of pear juice to it, now its going to sit until it needs racked again or it clears and its ready to bottle.


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## Dend78 (Nov 27, 2012)

well racked again its clearing nicely possibly one more racking but i believe I will be bottling next time.


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## Dend78 (Dec 7, 2012)

okay i bottled 2 gallons today, the rest went into a bucket and into the freezer, im planning on removing ice crystals off the top of it until I get some pretty high +20% ABV pear flavored wine concentration.


first racking











final product


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## ffemt128 (Dec 7, 2012)

Looks nice and clear, how's it taste? Did you back sweeten at all?


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## Dend78 (Dec 10, 2012)

tastes like a semi-dry white, ive added 2 32oz bottles of organic pear juice, and i added some sugar to most of the bottels but any pear flavoring has yet to come forward. its still young though i put it in the basement at my parents to let it age and see what happens.


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## Dend78 (Dec 13, 2012)

finished off the bottle in the pick last night, and i must say this is pretty darn good, pear flavoring is a little weak but its in there i get just a hint of it, im interested to see what a year brings with this stuff if the ummmm gremlins..yeah yeah gremlins dont get to it first


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## Dend78 (Jan 9, 2013)

well I gave another bottle a go, and so far this is my best wine yet, its a semi-sweet to sweet, if it gets better in a year wow! this will be amazing


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## roadwarriorsvt (Jan 10, 2013)

Glad to hear it. Amazing how a little sugar brings out the flavor.


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## Dend78 (Jan 14, 2013)

here is something new to add here, all of my pear wine was bottled at the same time and aside from one bottle which was at the bottom of the batch looked like the above, crystal clear. I put a couple of bottles in the refrigerator and a few in the basement, I went down to get a couple of bottles out of the basement as gifts to a friend and boom it looks like it did in the carboy pics above. not totally sure what happened to those, haven't pulled a cork yet but it almost makes me wonder if it starter fermenting again because the ones kept cold are perfect the ones in the basement are cloudy as all get out. I will post more after further inspection.


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## GreginND (Jan 14, 2013)

It could be fermenting again. Is it carbonated? Be careful the bottles don't blow.


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## Dend78 (Jan 14, 2013)

yeah thats what im afraid of, the temp down there has been a bit unstable and i was wondering if that had something to do with it but im not totally sure i will pull corks tonight to see what i have happening here i may need to put it back in a carboy again.


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## Arne (Jan 14, 2013)

Put one in the reefer and cool it off before you try opening it. Also, handle it gently, no shaking. Good luck with it, Arne.


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## Dend78 (Jan 15, 2013)

good news no pop when the cork is removed, now why so cloudy hahah


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## fivebk (Jan 15, 2013)

Dis you add sorbate when you back-sweetened it?? Sometimes when back-sweetening a wine it will cloud up, but this usually happens imediately.

BOB


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## Dend78 (Jan 15, 2013)

yup followed typical k-meta and sorbate procedures all was good wine was crystal clear, the first time i added juice after sorbate it took off again on its own but i rushed it a bit so i let it finish again the sorbate and k-meta again and let it sit for a while. then back sweetened again and let it sit a while longer, then bottled.


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## saramc (Jan 19, 2013)

Heat can cloud an otherwise stable and clear wine. This is why many wines go thru hot/cold stabilization. Check out #10--- http://www.winemakermag.com/stories...es/8-10-winemaking-techniques-you-should-know

...Sara


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## olusteebus (Jan 19, 2013)

Dend78 said:


> 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.



I put a good bit of peach nectar in one vessel of peach wine I was having trouble clearing. However, that vessel, which was small, cleared immediately. I began to think the pulp in the nectar influenced that. However, It made fluffy kind of lees. 

I guess in that case you may lose some wine.


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## Dend78 (Jan 20, 2013)

saramc said:


> Heat can cloud an otherwise stable and clear wine. This is why many wines go thru hot/cold stabilization. Check out #10--- http://www.winemakermag.com/stories...es/8-10-winemaking-techniques-you-should-know
> 
> ...Sara



the heat may be the issue there the temp down there isnt stable, they use a special heater down there when its really cold so that may be what caused the issue


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## Dend78 (Jan 21, 2013)

an update to 3 gallons of this, I got 3 plastic jugs and did some freezing, i then poured off the good stuff, basically like "apple jack wine", wow the flavor is amazing, the ABV is considerably higher but the flavor is so much stronger. out of the 3 gallons I got about 1.5 gallons. I then added basically apple pie spice, (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg) to make a nice spiced pear. I now plan to let this gallon sit. in the half gallon I just added a cinnamon stick which i will also let sit until say thanksgiving or Christmas or until the wine gremlins make an unexpected visit 


saramc

i was reading that article some and it says this

"To test for heat stability, heat a wine sample at 80° C (176° F) for 10 minutes and then place it in a freezer for several hours. Retrieve the sample and let it warm up to room temperature; if it shows any sign of haze or precipitation, then the wine is not protein or heat stable and requires a bentonite treatment."

for this would i need bentonite in secondary? reason i ask i had it in primary


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## saramc (Jan 21, 2013)

Dend78 said:


> an update to 3 gallons of this, I got 3 plastic jugs and did some freezing, i then poured off the good stuff, basically like "apple jack wine", wow the flavor is amazing, the ABV is considerably higher but the flavor is so much stronger. out of the 3 gallons I got about 1.5 gallons. I then added basically apple pie spice, (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg) to make a nice spiced pear. I now plan to let this gallon sit. in the half gallon I just added a cinnamon stick which i will also let sit until say thanksgiving or Christmas or until the wine gremlins make an unexpected visit
> 
> saramc
> 
> ...



I had been told that bentonite in the primary does not necessarily heat stabilize a wine, so a treatment of bentonite to help heat stabilize can be necessary later on. I personally have not done any heat stabilization though I have watched the process using a cooler and a temp controlled device.

And the pearjack sounds fabulous.


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## Dend78 (Jan 22, 2013)

saramc said:


> I had been told that bentonite in the primary does not necessarily heat stabilize a wine, so a treatment of bentonite to help heat stabilize can be necessary later on. I personally have not done any heat stabilization though I have watched the process using a cooler and a temp controlled device.
> 
> And the pearjack sounds fabulous.



hmmm interesting, well if there was more of it i would but at this point in time i believe i will just let it go, it still tastes just fine and I only have about 5 bottles of it left, not including the pearjack. Im excited for this pear jack with some age the heat is mild and the flavor was great, I hope to report back with great news on how it turned out


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## Dend78 (Feb 5, 2013)

added some more pear juice to the pearjack may take it through another run, flavor is good but the pear flavor is still weak


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