Pear cider wine how to

[CrealCritter]

Pears are my favorite fruit and my buddy at my local homebrew store (LHBS) knows it. So when I went to the LHBS today my buddy said he had a surprise for me a 96 oz. tin of Pear Wine Base he said it make a wonderful 3 gallon batch of wine, following the recipe on the can. I said what about the 5 gallon recipe on the can? He said still good but not as good unless you add 3 or so lbs of fresh ripe Bartlett pears. So that's what I'll do. I like 5 gallon batches better because they make 2 cases of 750ml bottles, plus a bottle or so more.

So here's the 5 gallon recipe on the back of $15.00 Vitner's harvest 96 oz. can of pear wine base.

Here's Walmart recipe for other ingredients.

So far I have $26.50 in this batch of wine. I'll use yeast harvested from a previous batch of peach cider. The cider yeast is a high ester producing yeast and is quite expensive like $15 for 11 grams if you were to purchase just the yeast by itself. It's my favorite yeast to use and has won many awards and is the premier cider yeast of all others available. I really like the high ester content it produces in the alachol . I got the yeast in a apple cider kit I bought for my daughters wedding reception and harvested it, so I don't ever have to buy it again. The other chemicals called for in the recipe, I already have on hand. Being very conservative... let's just say i have $30.00 in this so far after paying dick durban his taxes.

I plan on making up this batch of wine later this weekend and I'll post the how to process then.

 

[CrealCritter]

The first step is to prepare your pears.
Wash and de-stem them. Then core and chop them into chunks, you want no seeds or core what so ever, but chicken don't mind the cores. Be sure to leave the skins on.

Place the chunks in a plastic baggie and weigh them. You'll need at least 3lbs

Next, crush the chucks in the baggie, then seal the baggie and place in the deep freezer to freeze up solid (overnight). Freezing fruit causes the pulp to rupture releasing juice, which making it easier for the pectic enzyme to break down and the yeast to devour and convert into alcohol and other tasty compounds.

 

[wyoDreamer]

That is very interesting about freezing the fruit to help the peptic enzyme and yeast work better. I freeze the fruit when I want to make peach spreads and pear jelly. I started making peach sauce once and got interupted so I threw teh fruit in the freezer until I could get to it the next weekend. It turned out really juicy and smooth afterwards so that is what I usually do now.

 

[CrealCritter]

Combine all ingredients besides potassium sorbate, pectic enzyme and yeast into the primary fermenter. Gently warm 1 gallon of spring water. When warm remove from heat and add 10 lbs of sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves and water becomes clear. Add to the primary fermenter and stir in well.

Start yeast in a separate container, I like pint size mason jars. Add about 2 table spoons of sugar and 1/2 table spoon of yeast nutrient, so the yeast has something to eat and multiple when it wakes up. Top off to about 7/8 full with spring water and shake well. Set aside with the lid cracked so no pressure builds up in the jar. It'll be ready to add to the wine must in about 24 hours.

I harvest yeast for reuse. I store harvested yeast in the refrigerator in 1/2 pint jars.

Tomorrow morning I'll add in the pectic enzyme (about 12 hours after making up the wine must). The reason for this is pectic enzyme is a living culture. It takes about 12 for the campden (potassium metabisulfite) which is a sanitizer to gas off. If you were to smell potassium metabisulfite it smells like very strong ammonia. It sanitizes the must and evaporates about 12 hours after adding it. so the pectic enzyme and yeast have a clean environment to do their work.

Cover the primary fermenter with a old clean tee-shirt to keep the bugs out.

 

[CrealCritter]

Well its been 8 days since I pitched the yeast. It's been blowing bubbles through the air lock steadily and I wanted to see what was going on in the fermentation bucket. Here's what the pear cider wine looked like with the lid removed. I would say the cider yeast has pretty much ravaged the pears.

Next take the gravity to see how much alcohol has been produced in 8 days. The gravity is right around 1.040 which is about where I like to be for racking into secondary fermentation vessel (5 gallon glass carboy).

My starting gravity was 1.105, gravity now is 1.040 which equals about 8.44% alcohol by volume. That's a good fermentation rate
Handy online calculator --->http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/AlcoholChart/BrewCalculator.html

So I gave the top half of the must a good stir with a clean and sterile slotted spoon. Of course I had to taste it too. It's still quite sweet but I was very surprised how mellow the pear flavor was, quite good actually.

Here's what it looked like after a good stir. The must is still pretty chunky, so I'm going to give it until the weekend before I rack it into 5 gallon glass carboy. Give the yeast a little more time, to devour some more pear pulp.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's cool. Never tasted pear wine - but I'll bet it's tasty!

 

[CrealCritter]

Since I already added bentonite clarifier during the previous racking. I racked it again into another clean and sterile glass carboy. This time I added campden & potassium sorbate to serlize and kill off the yeast. I also added sparkolloid wine clarifier.

Bentonite clay is negative charged, so it attracts the positive charged particles and sinks to the bottom of the carboy. But sparkolloid is a blend of polysaccharides and diatomaceous earth and has a strong positive charge. So it attracts negative charged particles and sinks to the bottom of the carboy.

Once the pear cider wine has dropped clear I'll rack the clear wine off the less (garbage on the bottom) and bottle.

Sniffing notes... You can most definitely tell it's pear cider wine. It has a delightful pear and alcohol arroma. Tasting notes, it's totally dry at .990 gravity, there is no sugar left and you can tell because, it'll pucker your lips. I'll back sweeten at bottling time.

Here is what this wine looked like in a wine glass at the time of racking. It's pretty clear already but sparkolloid will make it very clear.

Here is what I I left in the bottom of the carboy that settled out from treatment with bentonite. It's just about 1/2 gallon that I poured into a 1/2 gallon Mason jar to cold crash in the refrigerator.

Assuming I don't over sweeten when I back sweeten at bottling time. This pear cider wine should turn out with a light and delicate look, with good nose and taste. It's wine after all, so it will only get better with age.

I haven't messed anything up yet, so far so good

 

[CrealCritter]

Here is what the pear cider wine looked like sitting with sparkolloid mixed in for one week. About the 3rd and 5th day twist the carboy back and forth quickly. This causes the sparkolloid that's sticking to the glass carboy to drop to the bottom. You can see the trub and sparkolloid in the bottom of the carboy.

Carefully rack into a clean and sterile carboy and degas. I also back sweetened to 1.000 with table sugar, 1.000 is the same sweetness as water. I like it exactly as it is.

It has an aroma of faint honeysuckle and pear, the honeysuckle aroma is the cider yeast. The taste is of yummy light pear cider with yeast esters, slight alcohol warming going down, that finishes clean with a slight hint of chestnut tannins. Now all that's left to do is bulk age for a while and bottle.

5 gallons of clear pear cider wine ready to bottle, when I get around to it. The red is from the roaster behind the carboy

And I didn't screw it up, yet

 

[CrealCritter]

Well the time to bottle has came. I'll be bottling it tomorrow. It's been bulk aging since December 28 2019 (141 days). I'll post more tomorrow but looking back at the previous post it's definitely matured some. Kind of interested to give it a sniffer and taste test.

Picture of the plum full 5 gallon carboy waiting to be racked and bottled. It's crystal clear but has most definitely got darker. It's some high octane cider wine @ 15.6% ABV. I'm pretty sure it will take you where you need to go.

 

[CrealCritter]

Wife came through the kitchen and asked what kind of wine is that? I answered Pear Cider Wine and pointed to the wine glass. She sipped it, then took a big drink. She said Not bad, a little alcoholy but nice pear flavor. I laughed and said that's the highest alochol wine I've made yet @ 15.6% ABV. But hey if the wife likes it then it's good.