Pear Wine

[Deezil]

Can you post your pear recipe? I've almost given up on pear wine which is a shame as there are so many pears for free or cheap. Checking my notes last year i added 1.5 gallons of water to 90 lbs of pears and used D254 yeast which stopped at SG 1.010, tried getting it going with EC-1118 but no luck.

Freeze the pears
Thaw the pears
Mash the pears

I know this wine is better without water, but sometimes the work vs reward (lack of fruit) makes me add a bit of water - dont add more than 20% of the total volume of the pears though, you'll lose flavor.

Add K-meta, wait 12 hours
Add pectic enzyme, wait 12-24 hours
Add Opti-White & Fermaid-O

Measure SG/TA
Adjust SG (TA should be okay with pears)

Make yeast starter - D-47 (mouthfeel), 1116, 71B (fruity), etc
Pitch yeast

Add Bentonite on 3rd day of ferment

Rack @ 1.000 - 1.010
Rack onto Booster Blanc

Degas
Clear
Bulk age
Bottle age
Drink

 

[Runningwolf]

Opti White added tonight. Tomorrow is day 3. I will start my bento addition tonight and add in the morning.

 

[Arne]

I made mine like Dan is doing. Used pure juice. Took a lot of pears, but if you can get them it is worth it. I used a lot of green pears, but if you have the time, think I would just lay them out in the garage and let them ripen. Think you will get more juice out of them. Arne.

 

[Runningwolf]

This morning is freaking cold. I have ice on the windshields since my pear is in the garage and the car is outside.

The pear is 75° and the brix is down to 12°. I added the bentonite and super ferment today. My garage is intoxicating and the aroma quickly goes into the house when I open the door.

Arne I agree with you. My pears were hard and green also but I had to move quick since harvest is here and I'm working eveyday 10+ hours for the next two weeks straight before I get a day off. Possibly in addition to ripening them stick them in a large fermenter whole or in half with a heavy dose of enzymes for a few days util very mushy then press.

 

[fivebk]

Morning Dan,

I don't know how I missed the start of this thread. When I was looking at the pics I had to comment to myself that you did a great job in controlling oxidation in the juice ( beautiful color to start off with). Good luck with this project and don't work too hard during harvest. If I didn't live so far away i'd come help harvest.

BOB

 

[Turock]

I feel for you Dan. During turnarounds, we worked 12 hr. shifts for 2 weeks at a time before a day off. Real hard to work that much and manage a ferment. You're pretty crazy in the head by the time that 2 weeks is up!!!!! Good luck with the pear---hope it turns out nice for you.

 

[Runningwolf]

Thanks Bob and Turock. 11:30 pm and just got home. Tomorrow will be even crazier. Exciting times though. Two weeks before a day off but harvest is probably 5-6 weeks. Walk into my garage when I came home tonight and was practically knocked out by the pear fermentation. I'll check brix in the morning. Right about now I'm happy it is only 15 gallons rather than 25 like the crab apple.

 

[Runningwolf]

Day four and the temp is still 75° and the brix has dropped to 4.

 

[Arne]

Few more days and you can rack it, airlock it and fergit about it til the grape work is pretty well done. Not much for a pear crop around here this year, maybe next year. Good luck with it, Dan. Arne.

 

[Runningwolf]

Today is day 5 and brix is down to 3?. I racked over to carboys to protect it from anymore oxygen exposure. It looks like I'll probably end up with closer to 12 gallons after a few more racking's.

 

[WI_Wino]

I pulled the pears out of the freezer last night and they were mushy at press time this afternoon. I thought I would just press and not shred. It wasn't good enough and I emptied the press bag into the shredder after that press and ran it through the shredder. I will never freeze pears again before pressing if I don't have to..

I've been meaning to ask this for awhile. Why would you not freeze pears again? I thought all fruit could benefit from freezing before crushing or pressing?

 

[Runningwolf]

I've been meaning to ask this for awhile. Why would you not freeze pears again? I thought all fruit could benefit from freezing before crushing or pressing?

Why, because I was frustrated at the moment I posted as I was doing it myself until my wife came out at the end and I was about tired of hand turning the crank to shred them. Yes, freezing first I think for sure would produce more juice. Tomorrow I will be racking off the fermentation. It has an awesome color so far. Tomorrow will be day 9. I sat them on my wine bench yesterday leaning on 2 X 4's so all the sediment falls to the lower edge of the carboy.

 

[ffemt128]

Nice color Dan. Looks great as does everything you do...

 

[fivebk]

When that clears completely and is filtered it's gonna be beautiful!!

BOB

 

[Tess]

Clearing Nicely. I like what you do with the wood in front. I thought of doing this myself. Does it help with the racking a great deal?

 

[Runningwolf]

Tess it does help. I can rack from the higher corner since most of the lees has fallen to the lower side. As the wine get's to the end I remove the 2x4 and try to get as much wine as I can before the sediment flows over to that side.

 

[Turock]

Hey Dan-- Can you tell me how you work with crab apple? Did you run them thru the apple crusher? They're so small that it seems the crusher couldn't even touch them. These seem like a dry fruit--did you use water with them?

 

[Runningwolf]

Turock last year with no equipment I used a 2x4 to crush them and it stunk, never again I swore! Now I have an apple cider press that has a shredder. I shredded them into paint strainer bags then pressed. Yes you do get a fair amount of juice. I did took a wild a$s guess on the water addition and think I may have added a bit too much as it does not seem overly acidic in taste as I expected (I did not test it yet for acid). The water was added with sugar pre-fermentation. I prefer to keep a good amount of acid in it as this is a good wine for blending. It blended very well with Chardonnay.

 

[Turock]

How does it taste straight-up? Do the seeds get shredded??

 

[Runningwolf]

It has lots of flavor but bitter of course right now. Sweetened and blended with a bit of another wine it's good. Excellent blender with apples. It did not shred the seeds in the apples or pears.