brewing 2ne1
A log on homebrewing by a band of merry persons.
Perry
14 September 2009 - A few weeks ago, I was generously given some pears. They were fantastic eaters/dessert pears, medium sized yellow/gold in colour. We ate about half of them but the last ~6 lbs were starting to go overripe - so I got busy with the newest tool in my kitchen - a Moulinex Pro Juicer.
The machine did a nice job of pulping them, but not what I would call juice. And there wasn’t much of it, plus the pulp catcher was very wet. Disappointed! So after putting all of them through the machine, I put everything (juice and pulp) into a straining bag in a bucket and squeezed 4 pints of pulp-free juice - not bad. Then I put the bag in a pan and added a couple pints of water, and mashed it up with my hands and squeezed it out - added it to the other juice. Then I repeated that once more.
The result was one gallon of wonderful pear juice SG 1.04. It turned brown almost immediately, but the same thing happened to the cider I made last year and it ended up the correct, golden colour so I’m pretty sure this perry will do the same. It tastes of a mouthful of a juicy, sweet, super ripe pear. Delicious. I then added pectolase, bentonite, yeast nutrient, citric acid and yeast. Can’t wait to see how this turns out.
Cheers - Jason
Update 21 Sept 09 - Still fermenting steadily in the primary bucket, but the colour has turned fabulous yellow-gold, instead of the dull brown at the start. What a beautiful transformation!
1 October 2009 - Racked into a demijohn last night it looks like it’s finished fermenting (no bubbles) and clearing nicely. Tastes dry, but otherwise very nice so I’ll let it sit another few weeks, sweeten and bottle. Can you sense a perry party sometime soon?
9 October 2009 - Bottled. Looks clear and a pleasant gold colour, tastes dry and slightly dilute, but nice. Sarah said it was more like apple juice, but I thought it had a pear flavour but admittedly only subtle. I reckon it’s about 4% alcohol - it won’t last long I’m going to be drinking this starting tonight! Interestingly, I drank the dregs where the cloudy bits settled and it tasted more of pears, so maybe next time I’ll leave those bits in and bottle it cloudy.
