Pear wine advice wanted!

[UBB]

Not being one to pass up a good deal, I'm the proud owner of 7 cases of Bosc Pears.

So I'll be letting them ripen a little more and then making wine. What can/should I expect with Pears and also if anyone can recommend a yeast for them it would be much appreciated.

 

[dralarms]

Freeze them puppies. Crush them, add pectic enzyme and get some juice out of it, then take a brix reading and add sugar to juice according to whatyou want sg to be. Add juice and sugar back to fruit pulp. Stir well and add yeast. I'd use 71b-1122

 

[Runningwolf]

I did not freeze my pears. I actually let them set for two weeks to ripen a bit more. I had way to many but if I had a walk-in chiller in my driveway I would have. Now a big tip Turrock told me that worked like a champ. On the third day of your fermentation add bentonite. The wine cleared right up for me within a few weeks. Don't forget your enzymes.

 

[Deezil]

Let them ripen until they're soft enough that the juice runs down your arms. Dont forget the bentonite, like Dan mentioned. Dont add any water, if you can help it, Pear is a really light flavor and needs all the help you can give it to let the flavor stand out.

I've found that Booster Blanc and Opti-White really help my white fruit wines as well, if you can source those.

Expect sediment, as well. You may want to isolate & degas the sediment to make it give up the rest of the wine, as well; I've done it with my vacuum pump and a couple quart jars for a day or three.

If you wanna knock it up another notch, make it a melomel (add honey instead of sugar to up the SG), but only use a light honey - something like Blackberry... Dark honey or bold flavored honey will smother or alter the pear flavor

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

D47, QA23, your favorite white wine yeast. You can crush them and press them like apple cider, drop in a few crabapples for some acid and tannins if you can find them. WVMJ

 

[Poni]

Mr wolf,
how much bentonite per gallon? 1.25 grams?

I plan to crush and press I hope to be enough for 3, 5 gallon batches of straight pear cider. I will get 3 gallons of apple cider to make up for any lacking volumes. I plan to ferment each batch with a different yeast.
Nottingham ale yeast
champagne yeast
cider house select cider yeast
if I have enough il do 71b yeast too

these will be more ciders than wine at about 6%and then carbonated.

I also did a straight anjou pear wine with qa23 yeast
also did
90 lbs pears
3quarts water per 12 lbs pears
7#raisins
5# honey
bumped sg up to 1.085
I used optiwhite

so anyhoo, how much bentonite per gallon?

ha, thanks

 

[Runningwolf]

POni, I'm interested in hearing how the three different yeasts come out. Yes 1.25 grams per gallon.

 

[spyder89]

I've used Champagne yeast before and it works nicely. This year I am trying EC-1118. The guys at the Homebrew store in my area have had good luck with it for pear wine and many other sites confirm the same. Since the pear flavor is on the weak side I would suggest keeping the SG between 1.080 - 1.085 as per Jack Keller's recommendations.

 

[Poni]

Cool, il let you know how it goes, thank you!
I think the ale yeast and cider yeast batches il keep at about 6% and the cahmpagne yeast will be about 9%. I dunno, i have a week to think about it. My pears are still hard as a rock! I hope they soften up

 

[spyder89]

Cool, il let you know how it goes, thank you!
I think the ale yeast and cider yeast batches il keep at about 6% and the cahmpagne yeast will be about 9%. I dunno, i have a week to think about it. My pears are still hard as a rock! I hope they soften up

I've been told by many people that freezing them works great. I did freeze overnight and it came out solid as ice but when it thawed it was soft as hell and super juicy. Very easy to extract the juice at that point. When I made my wine if I had room in the freezer for 40+ pounds of pears I would have done this but all I have is two refrigerator freezers full of necessities.

 

[dralarms]

I freeze all my fruit now. It breaks down the cell walls, allowing for better juice extraction.

 

[Poni]

I would try that, but i have 300lbs of pears. I dont mind freezing, but i dont if i dont have too.. i freeze raspberries until i have enough for wine, but if i buy the fruit i dont freeze them. I just use enzymes and the yeast do their job well

Its crazy, i have like 25 boxes half full of pears in my wine cellar at 60°. I want them to slowly and evenly ripen so i dont have to toss a bunch of baddies. Can anyone spaak to their ripening strategy for pears on a large scale? Mine seems to be

Pears + a Box + time /patients = ripened pears

 

[Zog]

Can anyone spaak to their ripening strategy for pears on a large scale? Mine seems to be

Pears + a Box + time /patients = ripened pears

I asked an orchard guy about this last fall. They keep them in a cooler at just above freezing. They don't ripen evenly at room temp... at least for eating.

Made a 3 gallon batch of pear wine from not very ripe pears last year. Came out delicious.

 

[Poni]

Awesome! thanks! they are just sitting in my wine cellar at 62F. Not ideal, but they eventually ripen, and i pull out the bad ones as i go..

 

[UBB]

I have 7 cases sitting in my garage waiting for them to ripen. Good info to know thanks.

 

[UBB]

Are you folks peeling your pears? As previously mentioned I have Bosc pears and they have a really brown skin.

 

[Zog]

Are you folks peeling your pears? As previously mentioned I have Bosc pears and they have a really brown skin.

I didn't peel them. They just went through the cider press skins, stems, seeds and all, then I fermented the juice. I would think the skins might add some beneficial tannin.

 

[spyder89]

Are you folks peeling your pears? As previously mentioned I have Bosc pears and they have a really brown skin.

I wouldn't peel them. You want some of the tannins from the skin. I'm not sure that I would press with the stems and seeds though because pear is a pretty mild flavor and too much bitterness from the seeds and stems may overpower the pear flavor. I quartered mine this year discarding the cores with the stem and seeds. I didn't even wait until they were ripe and I have plenty of pear flavor.

 

[UBB]

Ok thanks for the quick feedback. Pears are still in the garage ripening. The plan is to core them, chunk and freeze for a few days. Then thaw, press and ferment. I want to get it pressed fairly quickly before it gets to cold out it becomes miserable to move and clean my press.

 

[spyder89]

Ok thanks for the quick feedback. Pears are still in the garage ripening. The plan is to core them, chunk and freeze for a few days. Then thaw, press and ferment. I want to get it pressed fairly quickly before it gets to cold out it becomes miserable to move and clean my press.

If you are going to freeze them then I don't think you have to wait for them to ripen. Bite into one and see if the flavor is there. I froze an unripened one and when it thawed it was so soft I could squeeze the juice by hand. I tried to let my pears ripen off the tree last year and after two weeks I gave up and just cut them up.