A cooler full of pears... what to do?

[1187shooter]

I'm just getting started with wine making, this will be my second batch... a friend at work, also an avid wine maker, has just given me a large cooler full of pears from his trees...

I currently have three 4 gallon carboys to play with, but I'll probably pick up another 6 gallon or two tomorrow.

My plan:
Wash, core and stem the pears, then either chunk them up or run them through the juicer... skin and all? Which method would be better?

When you use a regular juicer, would it be good to save the pulp from the screen and put it in a bag in the fermenter as well? Or does the juicer do a good enough job of extracting the good stuff?

I'm not sure of the exact quantity, and I'd like to use as little water as possible... my coworker said he uses about 2 gallons of water for a 6 gallon batch, and adds raisins. If I were to use white grape juice instead, how much would that potentially influence the pear flavor?

I'd also like to try adding a touch of ginger to the mix... ginger is one of my favorite spices and pear-ginger is right on top of my list of flavors.
For a not-too-subtle but not-too-bold ginger influence, what would a good portion of fresh ginger be?

I did see a post on the recipes section suggesting the OP use pears for a batch of Dragon Blood instead of the triple berry, would the pear quantity need to be greater since it is such a delicate/light fruit, compared to berries? Or is that just me over thinking? The Dragon Blood route seems to be a very good way to go for a beginner... and from the looks of things I could see the results fairly quickly that way as well.

Anyways, your thoughts on this are greatly appreciated...

Dan

 

[1187shooter]

Update:
Brought the pears home and decided to put them in brown paper bags for a few days to ripen up a bit... Quite a few were still pretty hard/green.
They look to be some sort of Asian pear, but I'm not sure. He just called them 'canning pears' because they are a lot harder than Bartlett or similar pears.

 

[Norton]

Jack Keller web site has a recipe for Asian pear I believe.

 

[dorfie]

Exciting! pears are a very awesome fruit to use for wine! you can make a pear cider thats called "Perry" that is similar to apple cider...but pears!
or you could make a full wine with them and that can be a great white, or you could go the route that you talked of and make a sweet wine.
I would caution you on using a juicer to make the juice for your wine, electric juicers can break seeds causing harsh tannins and bitter flavors to develop in your wine, you would be better off freezing the fruit in chunks and then crushing them. the freezing will soften them some.
how many pounds of pears do you have?

 

[1187shooter]

Thanks for the replies!
Right now they are ripening up in some brown paper bags ... maybe tonight if they're ready I'll start cutting them up and put them in the freezer.
I think the direction I take will depend on how much I ultimately end up with after I prep them.
I have a couple good options now, so we'll see what happens. ..
Cheers
Dan