Pear cider wine how to

[CrealCritter]

friday evening 08 Nov I racked this pear cider wine into a 5 gallon glass carboy. It was at 1.010 on the hydrometer. Its a flipping pulpy mess and will need to be racked again soon. I racked over top of 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient because I noticed a slight smell of sulfur. This is pretty common when asking yeast to do a big ferment job like this one. Seems they run out of a critical nutrient and start letting of sulfur gas. By feeding the yeast, yeast nutrient. They come back around after a few days and are healthy again. It's almost like trying to read the leaves in your vegetable garden to figure out what nutrient is lacking.

Pics
Gravity 1.010

Pulpy mess of a wine right now but, I'll fix that in due time. Tastes good though.

 

[CrealCritter]

Racked this pear cider wine today (Dec 1). It's gravity was at .992 which puts the alcohol by volume at 15.4%. Yep some more you'll get all jacked up juice . The pulp (lees) was a good 1/2" thick in the bottom of the carboy and there still a few pieces of pear skins floating on the top. I decided since it was still pretty messy to add 5 table spoons of benonite (clay clarifying agent) and 6 oz of sugar and a pint of hot water. You mix the benonite up in boiling water add sugar so it doesn't effect the gravity by just adding plain water.

Here's the mess in the bottom of the carboy. More yeast for the septic tank.

Here's what it looks like racked into a clean 5 gallon carboy, with benonite mixed in. It should drop somewhat clear in a few days to a week.

Taste test... At this stage it's still fermenting and very dry .992. But it had a wonderful pear and alcohol aroma. Besides for the dry tartness (.992) It has a wonderful heavy pear flavor and the esters produced by the cider yeast marry very well with pear, alcohol content and chestnut tannins. It's also warming on the way down because of the high alcohol content. But so far so good, fingers crossed, I think this will turnout to be a wonderful wine, when it comes time to back sweeten and finish. that is, if I don't mess it up.

 

[CrealCritter]

My pear cider wine has finished fermenting, ain't it pretty? It's time to rack into a new clean & sterile glass carboy again. I'll post more then, there's no big hurry though it's wine after all.

 

[CrealCritter]

Since I already added bentonite clarifier during the previous racking. I racked it again into another clean and sterile glass carboy. This time I added campden & potassium sorbate to serlize and kill off the yeast. I also added sparkolloid wine clarifier.

Bentonite clay is negative charged, so it attracts the positive charged particles and sinks to the bottom of the carboy. But sparkolloid is a blend of polysaccharides and diatomaceous earth and has a strong positive charge. So it attracts negative charged particles and sinks to the bottom of the carboy.

Once the pear cider wine has dropped clear I'll rack the clear wine off the less (garbage on the bottom) and bottle.

Sniffing notes... You can most definitely tell it's pear cider wine. It has a delightful pear and alcohol arroma. Tasting notes, it's totally dry at .990 gravity, there is no sugar left and you can tell because, it'll pucker your lips. I'll back sweeten at bottling time.

Here is what this wine looked like in a wine glass at the time of racking. It's pretty clear already but sparkolloid will make it very clear.

Here is what I I left in the bottom of the carboy that settled out from treatment with bentonite. It's just about 1/2 gallon that I poured into a 1/2 gallon Mason jar to cold crash in the refrigerator.

Assuming I don't over sweeten when I back sweeten at bottling time. This pear cider wine should turn out with a light and delicate look, with good nose and taste. It's wine after all, so it will only get better with age.

I haven't messed anything up yet, so far so good

 

[CrealCritter]

Here is what the pear cider wine looked like sitting with sparkolloid mixed in for one week. About the 3rd and 5th day twist the carboy back and forth quickly. This causes the sparkolloid that's sticking to the glass carboy to drop to the bottom. You can see the trub and sparkolloid in the bottom of the carboy.

Carefully rack into a clean and sterile carboy and degas. I also back sweetened to 1.000 with table sugar, 1.000 is the same sweetness as water. I like it exactly as it is.

It has an aroma of faint honeysuckle and pear, the honeysuckle aroma is the cider yeast. The taste is of yummy light pear cider with yeast esters, slight alcohol warming going down, that finishes clean with a slight hint of chestnut tannins. Now all that's left to do is bulk age for a while and bottle.

5 gallons of clear pear cider wine ready to bottle, when I get around to it. The red is from the roaster behind the carboy

And I didn't screw it up, yet

 

[bambi]

beautiful !!! Hope for post pics when you bottle it. Have you thought about making labels for that gorgeous wine of yours?

 

[CrealCritter]

beautiful !!! Hope for post pics when you bottle it. Have you thought about making labels for that gorgeous wine of yours?

Label yes... and i'll get a pic or two when bottle.

Any suggestions for improvement of the label, are much appreciated

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

The first step is to prepare your pears.
Wash and de-stem them. Then core and chop them into chunks, you want no seeds or core what so ever, but chicken don't mind the cores. Be sure to leave the skins on.
View attachment 12453

Place the chunks in a plastic baggie and weigh them. You'll need at least 3lbs
View attachment 12454

Next, crush the chucks in the baggie, then seal the baggie and place in the deep freezer to freeze up solid (overnight). Freezing fruit causes the pulp to rupture releasing juice, which making it easier for the pectic enzyme to break down and the yeast to devour and convert into alcohol and other tasty compounds.

Sounds pretty complex. I hope it will turn out great... I hope my husband can make our own wine too. some good wine are too expensive... making our own really does sound amazing..

 

[CrealCritter]

Well the time to bottle has came. I'll be bottling it tomorrow. It's been bulk aging since December 28 2019 (141 days). I'll post more tomorrow but looking back at the previous post it's definitely matured some. Kind of interested to give it a sniffer and taste test.

Picture of the plum full 5 gallon carboy waiting to be racked and bottled. It's crystal clear but has most definitely got darker. It's some high octane cider wine @ 15.6% ABV. I'm pretty sure it will take you where you need to go.

 

[CrealCritter]

Good stuff yep it's pear cider wine alright and it has a pear scent also. The pear flavor really shines through. @ 15.6% ABV this will heat you up on a cold winter's night.

Back sweetened in a previous racking to the sweetness of water, 1.000

Yeilded 26 750 ML bottles plus a glass and a half for the bottler, who is feeling it, I tell you that!