How ripe (soft) do I want to let pears get before juicing them for pear cider ?
And any yeast recommendations?
Having done zero perrys this advice might not mean a lot… try Lalvin Narbonne. http://www.lalvinyeast.com/71B.asp. It is very popular among mead makers.
Having had some good luck with perries, here is my two cents. Don’t let the pears get too soft, it will become harder to extract juice from the pulp. The yeast I like best is Wyeast cider yeast.
Regular pears are usually pressed slightly under ripe. Too soft and you’ll be pressing puree. You could mix some apples in for structure. For yeast, colder the better. You used lager yeast for cider last year right? I think that would work. I’ve got 9 gallons of Asian pear cider at 55F with premier cuvee.
I had great luck with a lager yeast although I would have to look up my notes to remember which one. Scored 40.
How do you prevent it from getting too dry? My apple ciders all seem to get incredibly dry and then I back sweeten with apple juice concentrate and a bit of sugar. But they don’t make pear concentrate anywhere I’ve seen.
Pears are great. They contain sorbitol, a non fermentable sugar alcohol, so the Perry will never dry out as much as cider. It gets dry, but not bone dry.
Based on my experience, you don’t want them soft at all. Totally gummed up my press.
You can back sweeten (accordingly) with some juice after fermentation is complete. Just make sure to add some sodium metabisulfate before you add the juice. Dose a sample of the perry with some juice (to your liking), then scale it up on the full batch.