My inlaws used to have a pear tree with almost inedible fruit - very sour. It produced fantastic perry. Made it twice before they sold the place and I lost access to the pears.
It's important to leave the pears on the tree for as long as possible. Once they get so ripe that they start falling off, it's pretty safe to juice them. They'll clog a juicer in no time if they're not quite ripe. They still clog it when they're ripe, but you can juice more of them before it clogs.
I had my best results when I pasteurised the juice, chilled it, then pitched yeast. I brought it to 80C, sealed the pot, and let it cool to pitching temps on its own. You'll need DAP (diammonium phosphate) otherwise the perry will get a nasty mousey/ammonia aroma. DAP is an ingredient in a lot of yeast energisers, but it's better if you can get it on its own as you'll need 4-5 tsp for a 20l-ish batch. Pure DAP looks like moistened salt - it forms loose clumps on its own. Also remember to oxygenate the juice as much as possible when you pitch yeast for best results.
Thanks for this. To date my reading indicated a fairly high use of camden tablets (sulpher dioxide), but wasn't aware of the DAP - ammonia issue. Yes, definitely not table pears! We have a Moorcroft, one of the older varieties that apparently grows large and high yielding. For those interested, the following is the best summary I have found yet - which now needs to be updated for DAP! Gillian Grafton takes credit for the following:
The Perry Making Process
The process starts with the picking of the pears. These are left to mature for a period of between 2 days and 1 week depending on the variety of pear used. This period is much more critical than the equivalent period for apples in the cider making process. If not left long enough then very little pear flavour is imparted to the perry, if left for too long then the fruit begins to rot from the centre outwards (and thus may go unnoticed) and will ruin the finished perry. The matured pears are crushed in a
"scratcher" or in more modern plants they are pulped in a grater mill. As with the cider making process, the crushed pulp is known as the
pomace or
pommy. Unlike the cider making process, in perry making it is essential that the milled pomace is allowed to stand for a period before pressing. This allows the pomace to lose tannins and thus aids clearing of the perry. The usual period for standing is overnight up to 24 hours. Next the pulp must be crushed to extract the juice. This is done in a cider press, descriptions of which can be found in
the cider making guide.
The pressed juice is then fermented in one of two different ways. Traditionally the juice is run into wooden
pipes (barrels which can contain 120 gallons) or smaller wooden barrels, and the bung is removed. No yeast is added, the fermentation relies on wild yeasts. The fermentation will start within 1-2 days and will continue for several weeks during which time the barrel is topped up with perry. When fermentation is over, the bung is replaced and the perry is matured for 5-6 months.
Alternatively the pear juice is treated with sulphur dioxide to inhibit natural wild yeasts, and is then fermented with added pure yeast cultures. The amount of sulphur dioxide which is required is substantially more than is needed for cider making. This is because pear juice contains more acetaldehyde than apple juice. The acetaldehyde neutralises the effect of sulphur dioxide. At least 100 to 150 ppm sulphur dioxide is required to be effective. In the UK the legal limit for sulphur dioxide is 200 ppm and may well be reduced by subsequent legislation. Always check your local regulations first! The problems associated with the need to add high levels of sulphur dioxide have led some commercial producers to flash-pasteurise the juice. The advantages of this are that it completely controls the wild yeast levels. The disadvantages are that it destroys the bacteria responsible for the subsequent malo-lactic fermentation. The acidity must be reduced after the main yeast fermentation by a controlled fermentation with a suitable strain of lactic acid bacteria.
As with commercial cider making, commercial perry makers often blend new and old perries to ensure consistency of the product. Because of the difficulties associated with high tannin pears, commercial perry makers use low to medium tannin pears which will often be a mixture of different varieties. The resulting perry, although requiring less skill to make, is of a lower quality than that made with high tannin pears.
The perry is matured in large storage tanks to allow for any further precipitation of tannins. Blending is carried out at this stage. Mutual reactions between the blended perries can occur and hazes and deposits often form. These are removed by filtration or centrifugation. The finished perry is checked for stability by cooling it to 4 C for 24 hours and observing whether any deposits or hazes form. If the perry is clear then it is either sulphited or flash-pasteurised. The perry may then be sweetened and is artificially carbonated in the bottle by counter-pressure bottle fillers. The resulting product may be considered analagous to keg beer. A common example of this type of perry is the sparkling wine substitute Pomagne (often sold as Babycham). This bears little resemblance to real perry so please don't be put off trying the real thing by this inferior cousin!
Traditional perry is served completely flat and may well be cloudy. It may rarely be found as a naturally-conditioned cask perry in a similar way to real ale. Naturally sparkling perry may be made by the traditional champagne method in a bottle but this is very difficult to do since tannin deposition interferes with the process of disgorging the yeast deposit. For this reason it is almost never seen.
