Perry Pears

I've been crazy about the pear ciders lately! It might be as much about the name- Perry- as the fruit itself.  Between the gluten-free folks, the craft brew resurgence, and the seasonal/locavore movements, hard cider has jostled its way to at least a tap in every place I tend to go, and pear is elbowing its way onto the menu, too.  First, I noticed Sir Perry (the name is so adorable, you just have to order it), then Fox Barrel showed up, and now the inertia has set in.

I've been casually homebrewing, brewery touring, sampler-ing, and learning about beer through osmosis for over a decade. The past few autumns, I've dabbled in fermenting hard cider, which fell into my whole seasonal eating plan meets hobbies that require you to buy more hobby gear.  20 gallons in, most of the cider turned out…drinkable.  One batch turned out awesome, but I haven't been able to replicate it yet, because I don't remember which yeast or honey I used.

Right now my favorite apple ciders -to buy- are:  Crispin BrownsLane, and Angry Orchard Elderflower and Ice Man.  When I see a new cider that meets my basic criteria (all or mostly natural, not overly flavored with other fruits, no cinnamon/spice) at the store, I usually give it a try.

Pear Dutch Oven Pancakes

I've had a thing for pears for years; they're a little more delicate / floral / shapely / soft / interesting than apples. Or, it may just be that they're kind of the autumn underdog fruit and quietly sit in Apples' shadow. I love cooking with them- from turnovers to cakes to tarte tatins.

 So, as my new hobbies tend to do- this plan started rolling down hill and gaining speed.  First, I bought   Cider: Making, Using, and Enjoying Sweet and Hard Cider. The next day, I was at the Farmer's Market before it opened hoping to get the apple guy I buy from to 'just put some pears through his cider press'…sounds easy enough, right?  Not exactly.  Evidently, there are rules involved in this stuff. To sell cider for drinking, it must be pasteurized, and that's a process evidently.  Few farmers grow enough pears to sell in MN, so putting them all through a press for a teeny bit of pear cider isn't top priority.  Pear juice at the co-op had grape juice, came in small glass jars, and was expensive, so that was out.  Gerber baby juice was a cheaper option discussed on the Perry forums, but that wasn't gonna do it for me.

Google to the rescue- I found myself an organic MN pear farmer! He knew what Perry was, and suggested I show up at his farm at 2pm (when the rain was supposed to end), pick the windfall myself since there was just a hail storm and they needed to be picked and used soon, and "bring yer mud boots." (uh..."mud boots?") Now…it was turning into an adventure!


I ended up picking a LOT of pears. I was told they were Spice pears from a tree his mother planted.  They "bite ya back" farmer Patrick said, and he was right.  Pretty sure its the tannins in the fruit.  The flavor was strong, concentrated, and probably closer to actual English Perry pears (so I've read) than any juice I could've bought, if I could've found any anyway.  Disclaimer:  I did not buy these from him- in case there are rules about selling windfall crop- or any rules that would compromise his organic certification, which, as I understand it is a pretty complicated deal.  He just gave them to me.  So-- BUY HIS APPLES AT THE WEDGE during apple season.  Please.

The next step was juicing them.  I don't have a cider press, and consulted YouTube about making one, but decided to channel my inner General Patton, and 'choose my battles'. I used my Breville home juicer, knowing it was a semi-insane and deliciously messy undertaking.  It took about 4 hours, to produce about 3 gallons of fresh pressed pear juice, and many mixing bowls full of pear foam. I say juice, but it was more like cider in that there really was a lot of that grainy pear sediment that settled out eventually.

Then, I followed the directions in the book, and visited Northern Brewer a half-dozen times for hand holding and encouragement.  I DID NOT want this to fail, after the time and labor investment.

The process: I killed off the natural bacteria and yeast using Campden tablets, let it rest and settle.  I added 1 gallon of store bought organic apple juice, because I was told the pear flavor takes over even in a 1:1 apple:pear situation, but I really wanted PEARy cider. I used English Cider yeast.

My OG was: and my pH was: I fermented in primary for: and secondary'd it for: I took one gallon off and secondary'd it on a pint of organic cranberries, which I'd boiled with a cup of water and cooled.  When it came to bottling, I used Red Star Champagne yeast, and blended most of the regular Perry with the Cranberry Perry, or cranPerry, and used table sugar for bottle conditioning. I ended up with 2 cases of 375ml champagne bottles- 3/4 of it was the festive, pink cranPerry, and a few of the plain which remained slightly cloudy, and kind of a light creamy peachy color.


After about 9 days bottle conditioning, I couldn't wait any longer.  I took the cider to the brew store hoping the patient soul that had walked me through this was there to give it a try.  He was.

The regular perry almost caused him a work comp claim, as the top shot off and perry sprayed everywhere.  I learned from my mistake there-- don't be willy nilly with measuring the priming sugar. (It was late, I was tired, it was a sloppy mistake). The tiny bit left, he said, was a bit too tart.  I would also add that the tannis are really pronounced, with a dry astringency, but it tastes undoubtedly like pears.  The cranPerry, was perfectly carbonated, sweet-tart, very dry, a nice pinky color, and awesome.  He said he "had nothing to critique, because its f....n' awesome."