Pear Wine

[GreginND]

I woke up this morning thinking about this pear must! Do I need to add sugar to this? If so how much sugar for 5 gallons?

That depends on how much sugar was in the pears. Did you measure the SG?

 

[Runningwolf]

OMG yes! Tell me what your brix reading is or sg.

 

[michjen]

Stand by for reading!!! Doing it right now

 

[michjen]

Here's my SG reading I have not pitched the yeast yet...

 

[Runningwolf]

I would add 5.5 to 5.75 pounds of sugar to get you near 21 brix. Add it slow in a pail and stir real good and give it a stir every few days. 5.75 pounds of sugar times .075 will add about 4/10 of a gallon to your juice. When racking to your carboy just add any extra to a few wine bottles with air locks on or a 1/2 gallon jug.

 

[michjen]

Ok.... I will add the sugar now.... Pitch the yeast tonight? Once I know the sugar is dissolved?

 

[Runningwolf]

Greg this is a picture I just took. Pear is said to be a bear to clear. Turrock was adamant about adding Bentonite on third day of fermentation. As you can see his recommendation paid off big time. This is pear juice only with no water and without any clearing agents you can see it starting to clear nicely.

michjen, no need to wait till tonight. You can add the yeast right after the sugar.

 

[michjen]

That looks really gooooood!!!! Ok, I will add the sugar, pitch the yeast and add bentonite on day 3 I teaspoon souls do the trick?

 

[Runningwolf]

I add 1.25 grams per gallon. You do the math, LOL. Use very hot water when mixing it up and let it sit at least three hours (stirring occasionally) before mixing it in the pear juice.

 

[michjen]

Your awesome!!!! Thank you for the tips I will keep you posted!!!

 

[GreginND]

Dan, Thanks for the update. I've actually never used bentonite before now. I added it to a batch of Brianna I started a couple days ago. Thanks for the confirmation that it actually does work. I have a plum wine that is being very stubborn and is almost a year old. Maybe I'll try bentonite with that too.

Jen, before you pitch in the yeast, make sure the sugar is all dissolved and get a record a starting SG value. You need that to calculate your alcohol in the end. But I agree with Dan - don't need to wait until tonight to pitch - just get the sugar dissolved and measure it.

 

[michjen]

Sugar added.... Yeast added and letting her go!

 

[michjen]

I put the sugar and pear juice through the blender added 17 cups of sugar to get this reading.... And gave it a really good stir before adding the yeast

 

[Runningwolf]

Greg about 18 months after bottling my apple wine from cider I started to get someprotien fall out. I found out it was from not using bentonite. I now use it on all my fruit wines. Actually at work we use it on everything except the reds going into barrels.

 

[michjen]

Well then.... That makes me want to rack out my plum, blueberry, and blackberry and add it!!

 

[pjd]

I just started my Pear wine today. I started by mashing some very ripe pears then pressing with my antique press that I picked up earlier this year. I was not as fortunate as Dan when pressing, my paint strainer bags from Home Depot were popping like pop corn! I ended up double bagging everything, pressing slowly and still had some blowouts. I did end up with nearly 6 gallons of juice and it smells wonderful!

 

[Runningwolf]

Phil I fully expected mine to blow but not even close. This is the first time I even washed them. I just tied a knot and slowly pressed away. Some bags were rather full and some half full. I only did one bag at a time.

 

[Turock]

michjen---You can use bentonite in wines that are in the secondary. We've done it many times and it works well but it takes time. But here's something interesting that I found in an E C Kraus catalog---a product called Speedy Bentonite. The description is that it is a specially chosen bentonite and will "usually" clear wine anywhere from 6 hours to 2 or 3 days.

Some people like Super Kleer---you could also use that if you wish. My only problem with Super Kleer is that it makes a white wine more golden in color. And we had a couple times where the Super Kleer didn't seem to work well. We just bentonite our primaries so that we don't have to spend time and more money trying to clear up our wine in secondaries when we're wanting to bottle.

 

[Turock]

Boy, that pear looks great Dan. Back in the "old days" we'd spend more than a year or two trying to clear pear until we wised up and started bentoniting our primary. We have alot of experience using it---and what happens when you DON'T use it---so I'm real happy you went with it!

 

[michjen]

Thank you turock! I am learning as I go here!! Get information! I love reading these post with my morning coffee I will rack out the blackberry and blueberry and add the benonite, I actually put down a Chardonnay yesterday and measured out how much benonite was in the package! So I know how much to add to the fruit wines!