Pear wine - second batch from pulp

[oppyland]

Hey, everyone -

I am definitely a noob when it comes to winemaking, but I have done beer in the past, so I do have a basic understanding of the process.

We are having a bumper crop of pears this year, so I thought I would try some wine for a change. I made a batch last weekend using a recipe I found on Youtube. So far it seems to be working fine - just transferred into a secondary fermenter when SG was at about 1.026. It is bubbling away in a carboy right now.

In the meantime, I juiced about 2 - 5 gallon buckets of pears last night, and put the juice in the freezer for use a bit later this fall. My plan was to blend with apple juice and see how that works out.

I took the pulp, added a bit of water to cover, and simmered it for about 20 minutes last night. The plan was to try a second batch based on a recent post about apple pulp.

When I racked batch 1 this morning, I had about a half gallon of must left, which I dumped into the pulp-and-water mixture from last night (waste not, want not!). I was going to add the necessary stuff to get this new batch going this week. I wonder, though, if I should add campden and kill the yeast that was vigorously reproducing in the batch 1 must, or would it be okay to just add sugar, nutrient, pectic enzyme, etc. and just let it start fermenting? What do you think?

 

[salcoco]

no K-meta add sugar etc to get fermentation going. don't forget pectic enzyme. I also would recommend bentonite to assist in clearing the wine later. pear wine will contain a protein haze post fermentation the bentonite will assist in getting rid of the protein and make your clearing task a lot easier. I would also ferment pear separate from apple and blend post fermentation. taste tests will give you the proper blend.

 

[oppyland]

no K-meta add sugar etc to get fermentation going. don't forget pectic enzyme.

Thanks for the reply and useful information! That's exactly what I did. Seems to be happily fermenting at the moment! I backed off on the sugar just a bit since I figured the alcohol in the must I added was reducing SG - figured a bit low on alcohol content is better than too much.

I also would recommend bentonite to assist in clearing the wine later. pear wine will contain a protein haze post fermentation the bentonite will assist in getting rid of the protein and make your clearing task a lot easier.

Will-do, I'll pick some up asap.

I would also ferment pear separate from apple and blend post fermentation. taste tests will give you the proper blend.

Any advice on ratio to start?

Thanks again!

 

[salcoco]

I usually start 50/50. but have had some year 60/40 with either the majority.

 

[oppyland]

Great, thanks once again!

 

[oppyland]

Just wanted to post a quick update - I have 2 full 3gal carboys in my basement, and I imagine it's about time to transfer to bottles.

I had about a quart of excess must which I put into canning jar in my refrigerator. I opened it the other day to sample the wine, and it's actually pretty good! One thing that surprised me a bit is it has taken on a delicate pink color - no idea how that happened.

The wine is a bit cloudy, so my question is should I use bentonite prior to bottling, or would some other method work better?

 

[Stressbaby]

I made 10 gallons of pear this past year, all straight juice from pressed pears - basically like a white wine - SO MANY PEARS last year! Interestingly, neither went dry, even with EC-1118.

Yes, use bentonite now. It may require other methods. I've bottled some of mine already, and looking at notes, I used both bentonite (primary) and then SuperKleer.

Mine has a very "appley" taste on its own without any apple blended,

 

[oppyland]

Yes, we had a bumper crop here as well! I still have a gallon or so of juice in the freezer - was thinking about making some apple-pear wine this spring.

Thinking the cloudiness might be pectin haze, I tried adding some pectic enzyme last week. After a few days, I racked it temporarily into 5 gallon carboys and put it outside to cold shock. After a few hours (it chilled to ~35*F), I re-racked into the cleaned and sanitized 3 gallon carboys, added 1/8 tsp of K-meta to each, and put it back into the basement for another month or so. If it hasn't cleared by then, I'll be sure to try something else.

It's interesting how different the batches are - one of them (the batch I simmered the pears before fermentation) is quite sweet and has a fruity taste, while the other one is much drier.