Pear Juice

[Reviled]

hey guys

I tried a "Perry" a Pear Cider last night from some vineyard down in hawkes bay, it was sooooo damn nice that ive decided I want to try and make one... Problem is, where the hell can I get some Pear Juice? Or am I gonna have to juice a heap of pears myself?

Has anyone done this sort of thing before? Got any advice for me? Ive read that a mix of apple and pear juice is absolutely devine so I may try that as Apple Juice will be easier to obtain...

Cheers

[Reviled]

Just googled some stuff, would I be able to use this?

http://www.huckleberryfarms.co.nz/shop/Beverages+Cold/Juices/Huia+J...

[JoKing]

I'm fermenting some of that stuff at the moment. Problem with mine is that I pitched some wb-06 - that yeast is shit. Use Champange yeast. I've needed to add some enzymes in it to help with the ferment.

Another thing... I made perry about 4 - 5 years ago. I bought a whole carton of old pears from the fruit shop for uber cheap. They were too rotten to sell. I just put the whole carton of whole pears in my fermenter with about 2 kilos of sugar and waited for a week or so. Then I put a couple of liters of water in there and gave it a bit of a stir up (it was like a syrup at this time) then I sprinkled in some champange yeast. After about a month I racked all the juice into a carboy (with all the pulp and fruit solids) and waited for it to settle out. Then I bottled it.

The stuff was nice - but different to the perry you get from Hallertau. It was dry: like 996 on the hydrometer dry. If I could do it over - I would have put some PMS in the secondary to kill off the yeast. Then I would have sweetened it to taste, and then artificially carbonated it - it would have been pretty much like the perry from Hallertau if I had done it this way.

[Reviled]

Joking, youre fermenting that Juice? How many litres did you use?

I have a pack of WB-06 sitting in my fridge from a few months ago, and I dont see me using it ever... Specially after youve said that... Anyone want it?

Oh, and did you just use brewers dry enzyme?

[JoKing]

I did 4 liters as an experiment in a demijohn.

[Reviled]

Sick! let me know how it turns out, if it works, I may bite the bullet and get 10 litres... Maybe mix it with some organic apple juice...

[JoKing]

It'll be sweet as. I should have used a better yeast though. Get some Bayannus and it'll kick arse. The only thing you need to study up on is post fermentation processes - as the flavour is greatly affected by the residual sweetness. You cant bottle the perry if it is sweet unless you have taken care of the yeast (I mean killing it). Also - if you kill the yeast, you cant have sweet carbonated perry: unless you sweeten with lactose or some unfermentable sugar like that. Like I posted before - killing the yeast, sweetening the drink and then artificially carbonaing it (like in the keg) is IMHO the best way to go.

[Reviled]

Whats Bayannus? Just a different strain...

Dont know about the sweetner, im not a fan of sweet drinks, dry might be more my thing... What sort of body would you be suggesting here? Sweetening from 1000 to 1010? Or less/more...

[JoKing]

It's the specific champange yeast. Body? Get some scrumpy and brighstone ciders and do a hydrometer test with some - they'll give you a better idea of the sg's you may be aiming for (or under). In any case, unless the yeast is dead / filtered out: the drink will allways dry out to 1000 or under because any sugar you add (dextrose / table sugar) will get fermented; and if you bottle early thinking you might get a bit of sweetness in there - it'll still dry out and go super fizzy in the bottle! It might even explode the bottles!

Anything between 996 and 1006 is considered dry. My 1st one was 996 - and it was like drinking grapefruit juice! It's hard to describe how dry it was! It was like cranberry juice without the sugar in it. It took 2 years befre anyone could realy drink it!

[Reviled]

Shit, I shoulda saved some and done a hydro test... Ahh well, guess ill have to go and buy another bottle :o) haha

So to kill off the yeast you use that PMS stuff, then force carb it...

[JoKing]

Yes sir - I did this with boysenberry wine. At 12% it was a treat - ended up tasting like Asti. There are specific doses to use of PMS - and there are other products you can use too like sorbate and stuff. Tiffany from Hauraki Homebrew will give you the good word. Also use pectolayse if you want it crystal clear - that'll convert pectin starches into something fermentable: you dont need much. Also when all said and done use bentonite to clear it up - Tiffany will tell you how to use it: it's like super fining! Dont worry about using it if you want a hazy perry though!

[Reviled]

Sweet cheers mate

[Reviled]

As joking said I can only seem to find 200litres of pear concentrate, nothing else :o(