Perry New Year!

[lexuschris]

I hope everyone had a great holiday, and celebrated the beginning of a New Year last night!

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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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

With all the honey and fruit, that 1.25 gal of water creates about 2.25 gal of volume, and my reflectometer measured 32 brix, or about 1.128 SG. I expect about .011 addition from the fruit sugars, so this will likely be a sack strength, sweet melomel. We will see what happens during fermentation.

Anyways, I hope the new year brings you new brew ideas, happy hops, and fun fermentations!

Perry New Year!
--LexusChris

[WillL]

Very cool Chris! This sounds like it will be delicious.

[Megastout]

Coincidentally, in the process of making a pear cider.
Recently made a honey and honey crisp apple cider that came out great. It is ABV 6.4%,
5 Gal batch
1 packet Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast
5 Gals unfiltered honey crisp apple juice, not from concentrate, no sugar added
Og. 1.052
FG 1.002
Back sweetened with:
48 oz of sage honey from local bee farm
32 oz of the honey crisp apple juice
Good luck Chris, will be anxious to taste!

[lexuschris]

Sounds like a nice cider! I used the Red Star yeast on a holiday cider this year, and it came out well! I hope to share some with you at a meeting soon!
--LexusChris

[maltbarley]

Very cool, Chris!

[romen]

Very cool, thanks for sharing! Can't wait to taste the results.

[CurtisG]

Man a pear melomel and cider sounds delicious!
Let us know how it turns out.


Glad to hear people are brewing (or at least fermenting) I've been doing inventory here to try and get back up and running. I'll be sure to post when I finally get brewing again.

[lexuschris]

Good to hear Curtis!

So far, the ferment has gone according to plan.

Pitched at 32 brix, estimated 1.137 OG. I made nutrient addtions on Day 1, 2, 3, 4 of about 1.1g Fermaid-K each. After 7 days, we are at 25.5 brix, or about 1.090 SG corrected. That is the 1/3 sugar break, and I've had no off-odors or sulphur to speak of.

I expect to finish in about 3 weeks at 16 brix or 1.025 SG for a 14%-15% mead.

I'm debating if I should strain the floating fruit/skin cap at this point. All the sugars should have been converted by the pectic enzyme and yeast, so it is just a risk of spoilage and infection. I will probably strain it off with a slotted spoon tomorrow.

So far though, it smells amazing, and looks clean. I am still using the lees stirrer to get the yeast back up into suspension, but they will slow down as the must becomes difficult for them to keep going.
--LexusChris

[Maltose Parrot]

Chris, how did this turn out?

[lexuschris]

I transferred it to a mini corny keg and put it on CO2 before SCHF.... but have not sampled it properly yet. I'll get to that this weekend and post something up!
--LexusChris

[lexuschris]

Ok, so after letting it sit in a mini-corny these past few months, I hooked up a picnic tap to flush out any sediment, and got a chance to taste this pear melomel.

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The clarity is not fabulous, which is not much of a suprise. Granted this was literally a quick pour after taking 5 oz off the bottom, which still had some yeast settlement. It should clear more as I serve it.

The aroma of honey is pronounced, and the pear notes take a back seat but are there. Definitely get a mild grapefruit or tangerine from the honey as well.

The flavor is sweet honey, with heavy mouthfeel, and gives way to some pear fruit, skin coolness, and then to gentle warming from the alcohol. There is a long finish to this, which leaves just a hint of herbs/sage at the end. The fermentation was clean, and the D47 was a great choice. This is very enjoyable and sip friendly, even at the 14% ABV!

Enjoy your summer everyone!
--LexusChris

[Megastout]

Did you do any back sweetening?

[lexuschris]

Did you do any back sweetening?

No back sweetening as it was not needed. The OG was 1.137, and it finished about 1.022 .. so about 15% ABV and plenty of sugars left.

--Lexuschris

[lexuschris]

The fermentation was clean, and the D47 was a great choice.

The yeast was actually Lalvin 71B, as noted in my original post. (My Blueberry Blossum mead used the D47). The 71B has stronger malolactic fermentation power, and ester production. And it was an easy fermentation to boot!
--LexusChris

[Megastout]

Chris, would really like to try your perry cider, sounds great. Yeah sack level.
Put mine in a competition and got a 2nd place