We have a shitload of pears from our tree. They are conference variety and not that nice to eat, so we thought rather than bin them we might make perry. Remember we are not connoisseurs of booze, I don’t even drink it and my wife likes the stuff from the supermarket with raspberry in it. So we are just going to get some juice out, chuck it in a demijohn and see what we can do.

Thing is, lots of the pears have been on the floor, so I’ve read that we cannot use natural yeast because they’ll have picked up bad bacteria from the floor? So it might need sterilisation? The ones that are still on the tree might well end up in a different batch.

You cant make perry out of desert pears. (You need perry pears)

You can however make a very nice juice but will want to cut it back with something a little more tart like cooking apples. You can buy a pastueriser and so keep the juice in new bottles for a year.

If the pears are still hard, I’d make jars of spiced pickled pears with them.
Delia or BBC website should have a recipe.

Prolly not with drops though.

I was thinking it would need some tartness yes. According to the internet some people are making perry from conference pears, but as you say you need to modify the acidity with something. Our neighbour has a crabapple tree 🙂

According to the internet some people are making perry from conference pears

Some people are fermenting the wrong fruit to make some kind of hideous approximation 🙂 It’s not Perry though.

If it’s got alcohol in it and made from pears then it’s perry. Like I said, we’re not connoisseurs, or snobs…. It’s just an experiment. We can only eat so much crumble.

If it’s got alcohol in it and made from pears then it’s perry

It’s not though 🙂

it most certainly is not Perry.

Go on then, what is the definition of perry?

Actually you know what, don’t bother.

It’s going to get fermented, so any advice other than fell the tree and re-plant and wait another ten years would be nice 🙂

Last year we made pear cider / perry / BabySham from conference pears from our tree, cut with about 1/3 bramelys. Tasted great, was about 12%, messy to do but easy. Disappointing amount of ‘juice’ from a trees worth of pears. Actually it was more like half trees worth as pears don’t keep well so you need to press in batches every week or but I didn’t have time many were lost to rot.

Thanks cheers_drive – what recipe/website/instructions did you use?

Think this would be a pear version of the turbo cider some home brewers make. You can get tannin powder to add tartness. I used to add really strongly brewed tea to add some tannins. Reminds me that they used to say that you could only make cider from cider apples. Saw on the TV a while back that some small commercials are turning out quality product using standard eating apples.

I’ve made “perry” from conference pears and rhubarb for tartness, was really good, also made a really nice pear/rhubarb/ginger drink.

This is a good recipe for pear wine:

The pear necessities of wine

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Well fermentation has almost stopped already. That’s not even been a week.

Right. We left it in the cupboard for ages til it cleared, but apparently we should have racked it off into clean bottles to get rid of the gunge at the bottom. It eventually went clear though so we decided to bottle it.

First taste it’s basically pretty sweet, but not really sugary sweet, and it’s got no tartness or dryness at all. And it’s pretty strong, sort of like sweet white wine, although the sugar content suggested it would be about 6.5% before we fermented it. So we made three bottles of that as it is in case anyone likes it or we can mix it or something, and three bottles of it cut 50/50 with apple juice then pasteurised to stop It eating the sugariness and exploding. Two more bottles had a little sugar added to make it a bit fizzy.

Then we discovered that it is far nicer mixed with sparkling mineral water, and she added a little bit of summer fruits squash and actually smiled whilst drinking it, it was that good. So we’ve got four bottles of that. The other stuff we could mix with water or something else nearer the time.

So we might be able to salvage something from it after all. Next time I think I’ll nick a load of the neighbour’s crab apples to give it some dryness.

pretty sweet, but not really sugary sweet, and it’s got no tartness or dryness at all.

that’s what happens when you make pear wine rather than perry 😉

Crab apples might cut it, but cooking apples are probably easier.

Well crab apples would keep it local to the end of our street.

Thing is we didn’t set out to make the perfect cider, we wanted to do something with the pears. So if we end up with pear wine coolers then that’s a win.

Go for it! Ive tried a few experimental brews when i had my allotment… miss that plot so much but with a little lad, demanding wife and hectic work schedule ive got no chance of givong it the attention it deserves.

One of the strangest but surprisingly nice brew ive sampled is marrow wine! Quite like carrot wine too.

Whats the worst that could happen? You have to throw it down the drain. Best case scenario is you and the mrs can get a bit tipsy… well worth it.

Would love to hear how your experement goes.

Nice work molgrips.

My second year of making cider from apples and Perry from pears scrumped in my neighbourhood.

If it’s from apples it’s cider. If it’s from pears it’s perry. Pear cider is some awful concoction made from who knows what with some pear flavouring usually sold in a supermarket.

Sounds like you got it right. Pears have a lot unfermentable sugars like sorbitol. Don’t worry about leaving it on the lees for a a week or two you didn’t break it.

Like mtb or roadies there are a few purists who might tell you ain’t doing it right or it won’t make good cider / perry. Wheel size, gearing / singlespeed latest fad debate anyone?

If it tastes ok and not like vinegar you did the best with yer ingredients. Bonus if your friends / relatives like it they’ll respect you for researching and putting the hard work in to make it.

Oh and it will get better with age. Leave it until at least Xmas, or if you can wait until Spring.