On Oct 14, I purchased 900 pounds of Golden Bosc pears for $200. I couldn’t pass up the price but only needed about 400+ pounds to get ~35 gallons of juice. It took an engine hoist to unload the box on the pallet, then most of the day to cull and lay the pears out as a single layer to sweat. On the 19th and 20th, split the ~35 gallons up into eight experimental batches. Four batches used Mangrove Jack’s M02 and four used M12. I boiled 2.8g of chalk in some water, then added 1.0g calcium chloride, 12.4g of Fermaid O, 22.5g DAP, and 2ml of 88% lactic acid to get the pH down around 3.5 for each batch. Initially fermented M02 experiments at ~63F and gradually increased temp to ~67F by week three. The M12 was left to ferment at room temperature of roughly 75F to 85F, but that was naturally cooling down over the past three weeks. Oxygenated for the first few days. Checked the gravity on the 29th and they were down to 1.010 from 1.060. Hoping to transfer to secondary by the end of the week (likely 11/15/2024), as the fermentation has almost completed at this point. Most likely running the cider through a 1-micron filter during the transfer to secondary - where the transfer will be oxygen free. Will be incorporating gelatin and some ascorbic acid in the secondary prior to transferring. I’m a bit late to asking questions about what I should have done differently, but when the $200 worth of pears became available I just went with my gut feelings on the recipe. A pair of M02 and M12 batches had adjuncts of ginger and tonka bean. Another pair of batches incorporated a hop basket of pulp and a sliced ripe banana. The other two pairs of batches were simply pears. At this point, I’d just appreciate any comments on what I should have been doing, or how I should proceed. Again, I’m just a bit late to asking for anyone’s input.
I’ve never done a perry from fruit; so I have no advice for you, but I’m very interested in hearing how this turns out.
I also have no useful insight to offer, but am interested to hear how this goes.
It sounds like you ended up with 400+ pounds of pears that didn’t get juiced. What did you end up doing with those? I have a hard time just imagining a half ton of pears!
I culled about 50 pounds, which were immediately tossed. The rest were given to friends, family, neighbors, doctors, dentists, and others. At $0.22 a pound, it was too cheap to pass up.
My current issue is that I’m having trouble getting a transfer to secondary as there is far more sediment that expected.
I’ve made a lot of cider from apples but haven’t worked much with pears. Mainly because pears don’t do as well in my grow zone. So I’ll offer up what I know about cider for you to mull over.
Wine/cider fermenting behaves a bit differently from beer brewing, especially when you are working with raw ingredients. Cider is less about hitting exact numbers to reproduce a product, and more about balancing various tolerance ranges to produce this year’s vintage.
Acid and tannins are prominent parts of the flavor profile and mouth feel in ciders. Think crisp and full vs dull and thin. There are perry pears and cider apples where some varieties are sufficient in both, or high in one or the other allowing you to blend to perfection. These fall into various classifications of bitters for high tannin, sharps and high acid, bitter sharp for high in both. A few of these are self-balanced, but usually the cider is balanced through a blend of these types. Done either pre or post fermentation.
Most cooking fruit is light on one or both of these components. If you can’t adjust with fruit, you need to use other additives. Having PH between 3.2 and 3.8 is important for stability. Adding 50 to 75 ppm sulfite helps stability and protect from some oxidation. It’s the actual makeup of the acids that’s critical to the taste. Pears natural acids are primarily malic and citric, with some ascorbic acid. Lactic acid is much softer than malic or citric. Using it to lower PH may take some of the crispness out. I’d use an acid blend if needed.
Lack of tannin is another consideration. Consider adding ¼ to ½ tsp per gallon if this comes out feeling thin in the mouth.
The there’s pectin. Apples and pears are full of it. This can cause a troublesome haze, or even coagulate into more troublesome nasty looking globs of goo. I add ¼ tsp pectinase per gallon as it comes out of the press.
I don’t filter and wouldn’t fine cider with gelatin. A 1 micron filter will pull most suspended yeast and any lots of other visible and invisible things out of suspension. It has potential to pull tannins and other flavor components. Pears are notorious for contributing solids in the pressing. That’s going to cause problems with clogging if you’re trying any filtering into the secondary. A 1 micron media will only make it worse. One of the jobs of the secondary stage is to let this bid stuff settle out. Rack with no filtering eliminating as much headspace as practical, and let it finish out for a month or so. . I rack and rest for aging and self-clarification. It’ll be months and at least 3 rackings before I keg a cider.
Gelatin will pull tannin compounds. Tannin is good in wine and cider, not so good in beer. I use bentonite and/or sparkaloid. I’ve had great success using sparkaloid on pectin hazes. This is personal clarification practice coming from wine and cider making, not beer brewing.
I would recommend transferring to secondary after fermentation is complete. Wait until the perry has cleared on its own by cold crashing, fining, or both. Filter right before packaging after the cider is as clear as possible prior. Even then right to a 1 micron filter may be tough without a more coarse filter first.
I appreciate your in-depth response. I jumped up to a 30-micron filter and that still required 24 to 33 hours to push about 4 gallons from the primary to the secondary using 55 psi of CO2. I see that they make reusable stainless steel filters at various micro levels with the upper two being 150 and 200 micron. I think I might see if those work for future batches.
I figure it could take me another year to refine my process. It took me a good year before I started winning medals for my beers (mostly lagers). My first competition I entered, I received a double-gold with an average score of 43.5 points for (I believe) an amber lager. My most recent gold was actually with the same score at the State Fair for an Eisbock. I now have four gold, three silver and one bronze just from the last three years of competition at the State Fair. I’m hoping I can refine this pear cider into similar competition scores.
Again, thanks for the great response.
Thanks for the response. I discovered how easy it is to plug up the filters with the sediment from the pears and yeast. The largest filter I had was 30-micron and that still took over a day per keg to transfer. I’m going to age these eight kegs out (I’ve only been able to transfer four kegs over four days), introduce some blanc tannin, a bit of ascorbic acid (1/4t), and likely introduce some bentonite before transferring again via a 1-micron filter.
This has been a learning experience and I’m already thinking about my plans for next year’s harvest. I purchased my pears in Courtland, CA which is a huge pear producing community.
I forgot to mention that one of the kegs had a pectin issue. When the sample that I had taken for checking final gravity was placed in a pilsner glass and chilled in a kegerator, it was like a thin Jell-O. It was a bit strange, as that was the only keg out of the 1st four of eight that had that issue and the basic recipe was repeated for all eight kegs. I am going to try to introduce a bit more pectin enzyme and hope I don’t increase the bitterness from the enzyme while trying to reduce the Jell-O effect. Just part of the learning curve.
Thanks. Check ytbrews response to. That’s a seriously plugged filter if you’re pushing 55 psi and not getting much out of the other end. Stainless steel is going to do the same thing for more money. You need to let the pulp settle out before any filtering. That may mean letting it sit in a topped up secondary for a month or more. The bulk aging alone will get you a better cider.
Check out the Amateur Cider Makers group if you are on FaceBook. It’s predominantly UK people that really have all this figured out.
Keep brewing my friend.
I truly appreciate your input. I figure transitioning from brewing competition quality lagers to pear cider (I wish I could get perry pears though), could take me a couple years to figure out the nuances. I just cracked open a Samuel & Smith’s Organic Perry. That is one incentive to refine this process. Pear cider has so much potential. My son (almost 26 years old) has also been promoting using persimmons as a basis for a future experiment. I do like the idea of letting setting the keg on its side to get the sediment out of the way. I have invested in the stainless steel 200-micron setup. Not sure that it will be a great improvement, but I’m not concerned with cost - I’m concerned with results.