Dave and I were sitting having a meeting the other day (End of August) and we noticed a massive pear tree laden with pears from the window. Straight after the meeting we ran out to the garden and loaded up our bags. I know have some soon to be pear wine fermenting away in a demijohn down stairs. It is apparently a dry wine and I will crack it open in about 3 months to see the results. The recipe came from CJJ Berry’s excellent FIRST STEPS IN WINEMAKING which is a real find for all wine making enthusiasts.
Ingredients
- Pears- 2.25 kg, 5 Lb UK, 4 Lb USA
- Sugar 1kg, 2.5LB, 2 LB
- Citric Acid 1 Teaspoon
- Water – 4.5 litres, 1 Gallon
- Teaspoon of yeast and yeast nutrient
We used windfall pears that were on the turn the book agrees that these were the best. Not sure of the variety, I guess experiment and see what turns out the best.
Chop them up and save the juice no need to peel or core them. Put water in a massive saucepan and slowly bring to the boil then simmer gently for 20 mins. Apparently the wine won’t clear if you simmer for longer or harder but if you accidentally going longer and harder and don’t mind using chemicals then you might want to use pectolase to clear this up.
Strain the liquid through a muslin cloth and onto the sugar in a fermenting bin (ensuring that it has been thoroughly cleaned and sterilized) and stir a little to help it dissolve. Add the Citric acid (that you can obtain from you chemist) and yeast nutrient. Allow it to cool to a bit more than room temperature perhaps bath temperature. Next pour out half and half in two steralized demijohns.
It should be going mental as this point and will look like the toilet bowl after a heavy night out for a while with a white froth. Let this calm down to about afternoon tea level then transfer into just one demijohn.
Leave this brewing for about another month (I think) before transfering it to another demijohn and leaving the sediment behind. Then after you are sure it has stopped fermenting (no bubbles) stick into bottles.
Pear wine is a dry wine so serve it with continence
