The Great Pear Cider Experiment

[Brewing_Brad]

G'day all,

As I mentioned [post="746089"]previously[/post], I was recently given a whole tree's worth of pears to do "something" with, and so the Great Pear Cider Experiement has begun.

After much f*cking around with a pissy little juice - that I had to empty after every 4th or 5th pear - I ended up collecting around 20L of sweet pear juice. The experimental part is that's all I did. I'm letting the natural yeasts do the fermenting and crossing my fingers it doesn't end up tasting like dog turds covered in vomit...not that I've actually tasted dog turds covered in vomit, nor do I ever want to, but the point is, I'm hoping it turns out drinkable.

I was expecting a fairly slow start to the fermentation, but after 12 hours the airlock is bubbling away slowly, but rather steadily, so it's looking promising. I took a gravity reading at the start and it came out at 1.050 and I'll stop it around 1.010 to retain some of its sweetness.

If the juice is anything to go by, it's going to be a rather tasty drop! Even my other half, who normally hates pears, actually digs the taste of these ones. I'm hoping the finished product retains some of the flavour and sweetness.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Cheers
Brad

 

[Gormand]

How are you stopping the fermentation? Are you just chilling it and then kegging?
Just curious as I recently did an apple cider and it came out overly dry and tasteless so its likely going to be tipped to make room for my next brew.

 

[Brewing_Brad]

How are you stopping the fermentation? Are you just chilling it and then kegging?
Just curious as I recently did an apple cider and it came out overly dry and tasteless so its likely going to be tipped to make room for my next brew.

I'll be bottling so I was thinking of using campden tablets. From what I understand it won't kill off the yeast completely, so I should still have a few active to carbonate a few of the bottles (I'm going to try a still and a sparkling version).

 

[pimpsqueak]

I'll be bottling so I was thinking of using campden tablets. From what I understand it won't kill off the yeast completely, so I should still have a few active to carbonate a few of the bottles (I'm going to try a still and a sparkling version).

I'm having a bash at a cider soon and would also like to stop it around 1010. What sort of dosage will you use to stop it?

 

[seemax]

Pasteurising will pretty much kill all the yeast and stop fermentation.

It's been discussed before on the forums.... heat to 71C (in bulk or once bottled) for a short period and it's bye bye yeasties. You can then back sweeten if desired without fear of bottle bombs.

 

[stef]

I am by no means an authority on the subject, but i would have thought using campden tablets then trying to carbonate through fermentation is probably not your best bet? I'd have thought it would be too hard to get the dosage perfect- not enough and you'll have bottle bombs, too much and you'll have flat cider. Plus i imagine the amount of priming sugar needed could be tricky to work out too, depending on the amount of yeast left after the campden...

If i was you, i would bottle in glass, apart from 1 or 2 in PET- use the PET as a carbonation gauge and when you are happy with the level of carb in the PET, pastuerise the glass bottles...

Or do what i do and back sweeten once fermentation is complete- not as authentic but heaps easier with less stuffing around. I just add lactose/artificial sweetener as i rack to priming bucket.

Edit: Beaten by seemax

 

[Brewing_Brad]

Thanks for the feed back guys. I'll do some reading on both pasteurising and backsweetening. The last thing I want is bottle bombs!

Cheers
BRad

 

[stuchambers]

The pears contain complex sugars ( un-fermentable ) and it should naturally retain some sweetness. This is the reason people add pear juice when they make apple cider it stops it from becoming too dry.
Am very happy to be correct but this is my understanding of things.

Cheers Stu

 

[Greg.L]

Pears can have a fair bit of sorbitol, a non fermenting sugar, so it's hard to predict the hydrometer reading when finished. You can't tell how much sorbitol there will be. Have you checked the pH? Sometimes pears can be above 4.0, so camden tablets don't have much effect.

Greg

 

[pimpsqueak]

Hmm. Might give pasteurising a go before I resort to dumping chemicals into it. Should probably invest in a bulletproof vest and impact visor first though... can't imagine it's much fun being blasted with not only broken glass but scalding cider too :excl:

*goes hunting for pasteurising link...*

 

[Brewing_Brad]

Hmm. Might give pasteurising a go before I resort to dumping chemicals into it. Should probably invest in a bulletproof vest and impact visor first though... can't imagine it's much fun being blasted with not only broken glass but scalding cider too :excl:

*goes hunting for pasteurising link...*

Feck it, I think I might just let the sucker ferment out. If pears have unfermentable sugars, as Stu suggests, then it's gonna be sweet enough and I won't risk being scalded and flayed alive by high velocity glass shards and boiling cider.

Hey, there's an idea for some t-shirts: AussieHomeBrewer Saved My Life

Cheers again guys!
Brad

 

[Gormand]

Feck it, I think I might just let the sucker ferment out. If pears have unfermentable sugars, as Stu suggests, then it's gonna be sweet enough and I won't risk being scalded and flayed alive by high velocity glass shards and boiling cider.

Hey, there's an idea for some t-shirts: AussieHomeBrewer Saved My Life

Cheers again guys!
Brad

Ill be damned if that doesnt sound sensible. As long as the flavour survives you can always add sugar to your glass to cut the dryness if it ends up too dry. Or have some of the juice on standby and add some of that to the glass when you pour it. Should add some flavour and sweetness to it.

 

[pimpsqueak]

I won't risk being scalded and flayed alive by high velocity glass shards and boiling cider.

Ok, I'll take one for the team this time and we'll compare results. Next time I get to back-sweeten and you take the glass to the face though. deal? :icon_cheers:

 

[Xarb]

Yes using more pear juice will keep some sweetness.

The first time I made cider it was something like this:
50% Apple juice
50% Apple and Pear juice
+ some LDME

It was good but a bit too "dry" for me. I like dry ciders but it tasted a bit... empty? so next I tried 100% Apple and Pear juice (and some LDME).

This one was much better! Still I'm not 100% happy with it so after reading this thread and finding that you can get 100% pear juice in tins I think I will do a pear juice/apple and pear juice combination next.

Personally if I wanted to add sweetness to a cider I'd use lactose. Pasteurising while they are in bottles sounds way too dangerous for me!

 

[NickB]

Not to be pedantic, but an all pear 'cider' is actually a 'Perry'

Cheers

 

[Greg.L]

Not to be pedantic, but an all pear 'cider' is actually a 'Perry'

Cheers

Well to be more pedantic, a perry is made from specific perry pear varieties, not from dessert pears.

Greg

 

[NickB]

Touch.

So is a non-Perry Pear drink a Pear Cider then, or is there a better term to use, like 'Perry'

 

[Greg.L]

Really, you can call it whatever you want, pear cider is fine, but I would wait till he has a drinkable drink to worry about names.

Greg

 

[Xarb]

Seeing as I use pear and apple juice I call it pelapple cider. B)

 

[pimpsqueak]

Got a feeling I'm going to be calling mine Crapple Juice. :huh: