Perry Cider (pear) *pics*

[darkonnis]

I saw this post by Second2non in the other section http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... 13&t=38477
About making some pear cider, my mother happened to be passing through and upon seeing it, immediately hinted "that would be nice wouldn't it" there goes my monday morning then.
I figured I'd take some pics and add them and share the results. Will just have to see how i get on.
So here goes, first we're going to need a few things

Now that we've got them sorted, we'll get some water in the pan, and add the pear drops while the stove heats the pan

Then, launch a Mashive Attack

Measure out 400g of sugar and toss it and the cinnamon into the mix, then stir

I planted the lid and gave it a quick simmer/boil, in my opinion, you can never be too careful and i trust fruit about as far as i can throw a barrel of it.

This broke the pear bits into smaller bits and made sure everything was dissolved nicely, aswell as killing any hitchhikers

Now, Lid off, Stove off, Quick bask in the lovely smell then Clingfilm on

Then left to cool.

Next we round up the troops

Then at the master brewers command we get it all fired it!

Quick Hydro Test

Send the troops to battle

Leave for a week Great success!

My first attempt at brewing cider, and it looks quite nice.

[alfie09]

how many grams were in the pear tins? might have a go myself

[darkonnis]

what sugar?
68g for the can with syrup and 30 - 40 for the cans with water. Cinnamon... now i do like cinnamon so i just sprinkled some in until i thought it looked like i had enough. If you look at second2nons post which was linked right at the top, you can find a full recipe and probably a better set of instructions there
Dark

[stevetk189]

Nice post cheers. I have a neighbour with a few pear trees that I have been meaning to steal from In lieu of the tinned pears' syrup would I need to add more sugar? 400g seems a lot.

[Steve B]

Looks good - but won't be Perry - which is made from cider pears. You wouldn't get them in a can - they're pretty unpalatable until you make them into a cider.

[darkonnis]

Now you see, I thought 400g was alot too, but as i followed a recipe i'm just going to give it a go before i look at changing it.
Ill let you know how i get on with it and if it turns out to be super strong ill probably tone the next batch down slightly.

I didn't know that steve, i just assumed perry was another term for pear cider. Im in unchartered territory here for me, so ill know for next time

[stevetk189]

Now you see, I thought 400g was alot too, but as i followed a recipe i'm just going to give it a go before i look at changing it.
Ill let you know how i get on with it and if it turns out to be super strong ill probably tone the next batch down slightly.

I didn't know that steve, i just assumed perry was another term for pear cider. Im in unchartered territory here for me, so ill know for next time

Uncharted territory is a good place to be, you never know what to expect and 9 times out of 10, it works great.

[alfie09]

ummmmmmmmmm i made this tonight i used

1 litre water in the pan
4 tins of pear halfs
2 tins of fiji apples slices
250 grams sugar

added about 2 litres to demijohn to top it up just below the neck. the problem i have is it seems way to thick it the demijohn i poured some into my gravity testing test tube and the hyrdrometer just sticks like it's falling into concrete? any ideas or have i bollocksed it up

[darkonnis]

Its likely you've made it with too many solids mate, The batch i have now is chugging away nicely but it is quite thick, and because of the sugar it still has a fair krausen head on it even now. Though i did pitch far far far too much yeast.
Heres a pic

[alfie09]

what could i do to help i have pitched the yeast?

[darkonnis]

Well that depends, how bothered are you?
you could:
Transfer some now into another jon/bucket and dilute slightly to get the desired thickness and just see how it turns out.
Wait until primary fermentation completes, then dilute it down to the desired FG (ie, if its say 6% then if you topped 1L upto 1.5L it stands to reason it would probably lose 2% but it might make it more drinkable than jelly)

Personally I'd let it finish fermenting, then fill a bottle up 2/3 with it and top up with either apple juice or water, this will stop the flavour getting diluted into the floor, then obviously work out how much sugar the apple juice added and see if you need to add more or not. If you do add apple and it seems it has excessive sugar in, leave a bigger gap than usual in the bottle so the gas has chance to expand without blowing your bottles to shit.
Let me know how you get on, whatever you decide to do please

[alfie09]

might buy another demi and spilt in two and then top up half water half apple juice and add more yeast?

[darkonnis]

wouldnt bother adding yeast, put a solid bung in the demi give it a good shake to mix it all then tip it immediately into the other demi so they're both half full. top up as required, yeast will be evenly split near enough or so much so that its not worth wasting other yeasties on it.
When topping up, just make sure you dont go too mad and end up with a weak as piss thing, make sure than a half and half mix is enough to maintain what you're after.

[alfie09]

just been to buy another demijohn and some pure cloudy apple juice bloody expensive to. should i just top up with the apple juice or boil it

[alfie09]

got this fermenting at 12oc with gervin yeast no5. wow my shed stinks of eggs yuck. much worse than a lager fermentation proper rotten stink ha