Pressing Pears

[Bagman]

I am going to make 5gal. of pear wine. Plan on running them through the crusher and pressing them. My question is should I put the pulp from pressing in the must for fermentation and how much juice do I need to make a full flavored wine. I have a 5gal bucket of pears but access to all I want. Thanks in advance!

 

[Johnd]

Having never done pears, I can't answer the question about whether or not to include the pressings in the fermentation. My gut tells me that you'll get more body and flavor from doing so, but pear skin always tastes sort of bitter to me. Hopefully someone with pear experience will jump in.

As for how many pears to use, I'll share with you my purist fruit wine opinion. If you want a full bodied, flavorful wine, don't use any water, just the natural goodness you get from your fruit. Pear is a pretty lightly flavored fruit compared to some others, making my opinion of adding no water even stronger. If you have access to all you want, I'd suspect that you could get a full 6 gallon carboy or pure pear wine from 100 - 120 lbs of pears.

 

[Bagman]

Thank you John. I would like to make it as you suggest, no pressings and all juice but I was afraid that I may be omitting something needed from the pressings and or putting in to much of something by using all juice.

 

[Johnd]

Thank you John. I would like to make it as you suggest, no pressings and all juice but I was afraid that I may be omitting something needed from the pressings and or putting in to much of something by using all juice.

Again, I'm not sure about the pressings, but you have my thoughts on that. You'll also need to be prepared to add some sugar to get to your desired starting BRIX to produce the ABV% that you want. Pears are somewhere around 15 BRIX on average, which will give you just under 9% ABV if it goes to .995. I'd imagine that you'd like to be closer to 11% or 12%. The average pH of pears is 3.6 - 4.0, 3.6 would be fine, but you may need to adjust it down with some acid blend if it's much higher. Some sulfite after fermenting, a little back sweetening when it's clear to help bring out the pear flavor, it should be a pretty easy gig.

 

[Bagman]

I planned on shooting for 12% because I read that with the mild flavor of pears that if you run the ABV up it will taste like moonshine. I have acid blend and potassium sulfate and will watch the PH. Thanks again and it looks like I had better get to picking' pears, I'm going to need a lot more!

Much Appreciated,
Sam

 

[Rice_Guy]

Traditional pears will sweat till soft which drops the Titratable acidity and firmness and ups the gravity. But they machine better with some firmness, ie trade off time.
With as much fruit as you want run 100% juice. My preference is to toss in 5% tannic crab apple which can make the flavor more balanced.

 

[Bagman]

Thanks for the tip, my pears are still quite firm and I was going to wait until they start to soften up before starting. My thinking is that when they start to soften up that they are riper and will give me more juice with higher sugar content. As far as the tannic crab apples, I am unfamiliar with them but I will do my research on the computer and at the local pub over a cold ale. I have found that I can secure most fruits and an abundance of knowledge for the price of a pint.


Appreciate it,

Sam

 

[Jal5]

We did pears cut and frozen then poured water over the bags of fruit. Something like the dragon blood recipe seen here in the forums eg. squeezing the bags in the primary. . It turned out great. It was a 5g batch.
We will do it again next month but I plan to use more pears this time and less water. If anything I may blend with some apple wine for part of the new batch. I added sugar to backsweeten and a little acid to bring out the flavor. Flavor is quite subtle on that first batch.
joe

 

[Bagman]

Thanks Joe. I was wanting to start cutting up the pears and freezing them so I can get as many as possible but I was worried that they would turn brown and cause an off taste. Do you think that more pears would give it a fuller flavor or is the subtle flavor just the nature of the beast? Also, did you press your pears or mash them?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[Jal5]

I think freezing helped break down the fruit. Some got a little brown but that didn’t hurt anything. I pressed the Mesh fruit bags by hand every day. More pears would increase the flavor. We tried taste testing the finished wine with pear extract but that was too flowery for us.
finished product photo.
joe

 

[silverbullet07]

I have just moved my pear wine to secondary. Thought I would let you know what I did.

I picked the pears when they were ready. After picking them, they will begin to ripen. I had them in baskets in the basement And let them sit about a week as the soften.

once ready, I washed, cored and sliced into small pieces. As I was doing that, I placed the pieces in bucket with a little water and lemon juice. What I used was about a 1/2 cup water and 2 tbs of lemon juice to 10 lbs pears. As I placed the pieces in, I stirred them up to coat with the liquid. This kept them from turning brown and they looked a lot nicer compared to ones I did not put lemon on.

once I had about 10lbs in the bucket, I put it all in a vacuum bag, sealed and placed in freezer. I froze 30 pounds of pears after they were prepared.

after about a week, I laid the bags in a cooler to thaw. Took a couple days to thaw good. Then I mashed the pears while in the bags and dumped into mesh bag.

my mistake was using a mesh bag where the holes were a little big which allowed the pulp to squeeze out. I would use a fine mesh brew bag in the bucket and put all the pears in it. That was what I did after nearing the end of fermentation and it contained all the pulp left over When I transferred to secondary.

use a lot pectin enzeme To help break down the pulp. Someone recommended 10x the normal amount But I used 4x the amount. It really broke it down good.

I made 4 gal batch with the 30lbs with the extra to use as topping up as needed. I have tasted it and you can taste the pear so I think it will be good.

 

[Bagman]

I appreciate the responses, some really helpful info. I like the idea of a little water and lemon juice before freezing to prevent the pears from browning. Plus freezing will give me plenty of time to get more pears together. I will freeze the cut up pieces in vacuum bags and when ready to start place the thawed out pears in an mesh bag and run them through my press. I am still struggling if I should put the mesh bag with the pressed pulp in with the juice for fermentation. I am going on a camping trip next weekend to I have some time to ponder on it and hopefully get some more advice. This forum has been a wealth of information on just about any topic I have searched for.

Thanks again,

Sam

 

[silverbullet07]

I was told the skins can help give it some natural tannins in the pear wine, If that matters to you. I don’t know of anything negative Especially if it is maintained in a mesh bag. But I am a newbie.

 

[Jal5]

So how did it turn out silver?

 

[silverbullet07]

I still have it aging in a Carboy. It cleared really quick and it taste good. You can taste a hint of the fruit. I will back sweet it some before bottling. Thinking about using a pear concentrate to sweeten it some and it may add some more pear taste. I will sample it first before doing it.

I think it looks amazing.

 

[Johnd]

I still have it aging in a Carboy. It cleared really quick and it taste good. You can taste a hint of the fruit. I will back sweet it some before bottling. Thinking about using a pear concentrate to sweeten it some and it may add some more pear taste. I will sample it first before doing it.

I think it looks amazing.

View attachment 70342
View attachment 70343

Looks awesome, clear as a bell!!!!! I'm sure you'll remember to use potassium sorbate before adding back sugar to prevent a renewed fermentation from kicking off. Just a note, if you sweeten with sugar, your wine should remain clear and be ready for bottling shortly afterwards. If you use some sort of flavored sweetener, like pear concentrate, you'll most likely have to go through the clearing process again, as the wine will cloud up from the additions............