A few weeks ago, my wife's friend Sarah brought over a box of pears from Harry & David which she received as a holiday gift. She doesn't care for pears, and gave them to me as I have yet to meet a pear I didn't like! My wife was wondering what we would do with 5 lbs of pears, which were already very ripe. After a moment's thought, I suggested I could ferment the whole batch and make something we might all enjoy! A perry? or a pear mead/melomel? She loved the idea!
So, I diced them up, making sure to remove the stems and seed/cores. Loaded them all into a 1 gallon freezer bag, and froze them to help break down the pear meat. After 3 weeks in the freezer, I took them out this morning to thaw. I wanted to keep the skin on them for some natural tanins and perhaps some wild yeasts. They definitely changed color, and got juicier, and the aroma was amazing! So the plan I came up with was to ferment them with honey for a pear melomel. While looking at Crystal's Honey website, I saw they had a honey I had not heard of before: Black Lotus Honey! It sounded amazing, so I ordered a 10 lbs bucket, and the sample today was indeed delicious with spicy citrus notes.
I visited Windsor Homebrew Supplies and picked out a wine yeast: Lalvin 71B for its ability with malolactic fermentation, and fruit forward flavor profile.
I already had some pectic enzyme on hand, so put that in first with water and the thawed out pears. After adding more water, and about 8 lbs of the honey, I used my lees-stirrer to whip it all together. Pitched the re-hydrated yeast slurry (with some Go-Ferm) this afternoon, and will now await the long process of chewing through all those wonderful sugars! My target is 2 gallons of finished product, and the recipe looks kinda like this:
Code: Select all
8.0 lbs Black Locust Honey
5.0 lbs Pears, sliced
1/2 pkg Lalvin 71B
1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1.25 gal Arrowhead Drinking Water
Anyways, I hope the new year brings you new brew ideas, happy hops, and fun fermentations!
Perry New Year!
--LexusChris