The Great Pear Cider Experiment

[Brewing_Brad]

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:

Let's drink on that.

 

[Brewing_Brad]

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

I agree, and knowing my luck I'll end up calling it shit and chuckin' it! But I hope not

 

[SuiCIDER]

Wild yeast starts tasting pretty crappy if you let it get any drier than around 1.020, I'd stop it around there to avoid the off flavours.

 

[drsmurto]

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

Greg

So using apples other than specific cider apple varieties produces what then?

 

[Greg.L]

Wild yeast starts tasting pretty crappy if you let it get any drier than around 1.020, I'd stop it around there to avoid the off flavours.

Traditional perry is always made with wild yeast and always fermented dry, with residual sweetness provided by the unfermented sorbitol. Wild yeast fermentations to dry are very common in wine, cider and perry. Most people believe the flavour is better. Any problems are usually at the start when weakly fermenting yeasts predominate.

Greg

 

[Greg.L]

So using apples other than specific cider apple varieties produces what then?

The whole naming thing isn't very important, I was just replying to the previous post. Personally I wouldn't use the name perry unless there were some perry pears used, but others can do as they see fit. The important thing is whether you make a good drink.

Greg

 

[Brewing_Brad]

Hey folks,

I promised you an update, and an update I shall give you.

I let it ferment all the way out and ended up with a FG of 1.007 (OG was 1.054).

Now, I'm not all that good at giving descriptions, but I'll do my best: there's a slight sour...almost rotten pear smell with a hint of yeastiness to it, but not not offensive. I guess you could say it smells like a pear that's just started to rot at the bottome of the tree, which I suppose, all things considered, that's exactly what it is.

There is a sourness to the taste as well and it's not overly peary - well, nothing like the pears tasted like when they went it, in fact, I'm picking up a hint of Ganny Smith apple in there, if I'm not mistaken.

Overall, it's not too bad, but I think I will backsweeten it with some pear juice (there might be a few left on the tree) and let it age and mellow for a month or two to see what it'll become.

Stay tuned.
Brad

 

[Greg.L]

That's a fairly high final gravity, it may not have finished completely yet or it may be sorbitol. The yeasty smell is normal, it should clear. The sour and grannysmith flavours are probably malic acid, you could do a mlf to get rid of it but that may not leave much flavour. If you don't want MLF add some camden tablets and keep cool. (the cider that is). You need to keep air right away from it to age it, either a glass demijohn or get it bottled or kegged in a couple of weeks. If you add juice it will just referment unless you pasteurise after bottling.

Greg

 

[BjornJ]

I did a test run of cider using 2 litres of apple and a can (850 ml) of pear juice, and the cider ended at FG 1.006.
The pear juice sure seems to up the FG,


thanks
Bjorn

 

[Brewing_Brad]

[snip]you could do a mlf to get rid of it but that may not leave much flavour. [/snip]

Sorry for being dumb, but what's an mlf? (I could look it up, but I'm half drunk and lazy )

 

[Greg.L]

MLF is a bacterial fermentation that converts malic acid to lactic acid. Malic acid tastes sour, lactic doesn't, malic acid is the main acid in apples and pears. The mlf culture is expensive but it is common to get a wild mlf in cider that is high pH and above 15C. Camden tablets will prevent MLF. I pitch a mlf in all my ciders because I like a reliable process and the cider is much more drinkable after (I leave mine unsweetened). If you intend sweetening, which is difficult, you should avoid MLF because the sugar balances the acid.

Pears are already low acid so I don't know about allowing a mlf, but if you don't like that sour, green apple flavour mlf will get rid of it.

Greg

 

[pimpsqueak]

Well, I bottled 14 stubbies at SG 1.012, which doesn't sound like much but the remainder wound down to 1.004 (and was still very slowly bubbling away).
I used coopers carb drops in all the bottles and the ones at 1.004 were back sweetened in two batches. One batch used a liquid artificial sweetener and the other used Stevia. (both off the shelf from Woolworths). Basically, I couldn't be arsed using lactose in the end.

So I opened a bottle of the 1.012 today and it was fairly well carbed. A bit dry and sour but not unpleasant. If I add a bit of juice to it I reckon it will be pretty damn tasty.
I'll wait for a few more days and crack another bottle. If it's carbed enough I will then embark on Operation: Glass-in-the-face.