Anyone make Perry? I have a bumper crop of Bartlet and Danjue pears this year. Usually blend them in with my apples but this year looks like i have plenty for a straight batch of both. Any hints?
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It’ll take a while to crush and squeeze them… Get yer self a good head wind going first… Any G-kids to help?
Sneezles61
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I was reading to freeze them then thaw and crush
Makes sense… freeze and thaw will help break down the cells/fiber… I made a “mangler” using a under sink-gizmo… Works great!
Sneezles61
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I picked up a fruit grinder last season makes it much easier
OK since it doesn’t look like any Perry makers I’ll document my process. Ive read up on Perry and found it is popular or was popular in France and western Germany. It is generally stronger and sweeter than apple cider. The process is similar. I’ve read the pears hold in the juice more than apples when pressing so my plan is to freeze them before crushing
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I’ll keep tuned in here. 
Sneezles61
I made a Bartlett perry a couple years ago. But it was so mild and not nearly tart enough… that I decided to blend it 50/50 with cider. Then I enjoyed it very much. Had the best of both. If you go with a straight unblended perry, you’ll likely want to add some malic acid to bring down the acidity to avoid bland watery-ness.
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I had thought to add acid blend
And what about yeast selection?
You know where I’m going… 
Sneezles61
US-04 is my standard for cider so ill use that. I’ve used wine yeast, Saison yeast and US-05 and they all make cider. Ive just liked the English yeast fermented on the warm side. Traditional as well
Although french style Perry may benefit from some saison yeast 
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BINGO!! And too dry it out a bit more… which brings a bit of Zing to the palate…
But then… 
Sneezles61
I’m not a real big fan of beer yeasts in non-beers. Wine yeasts are selected over time to ferment sugar-water cleanly and to put up with any dumb sulfites we throw at them. Some beer yeasts are not great in ciders, in my experience. The resulting cider (or perry in this case) actually can end up with a beer-like flavor to it, which you won’t get with wine yeasts. I’ll still try beer yeasts on occasion, but… my favorite yeast for these is still good old Cote des Blancs, which is a cheap & effective white wine yeast. It ferments pretty dry, but nothing some xylitol or lactose can’t fix at the end.
My 2 cents. Cheers.
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Not looking for dry or i would use wine yeast. I have used Cote de Blanc in cider and peach wine before. Not going with Saison because i don’t want those esters coming through. Probably use some golden raisons for body. Maybe some brown sugar depends on the gravity of the pear juice. I think I’ll split this into 2 or 3 one gallon batches
sneezles61m, you’re probably right about it. But it took a while only the first time for me. Anyway, if I need a good gift, full of cider bottles, I would rather do an order of it from this related cider gifts page, where I could find pretty awesome tastes. They sell not just cider itself, but also concomitant goods, like cheese, etc.
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Well i squeezed the pears and apples today. The pear juice 12°bx the apple 11.5°bx
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Brix times 4+/- ? 1.048 fer pears… Thats a nice beginning…
Was gonna ask about yeast… but a quick scroll back… found my answer(?)… 
OR is there a deviation?
I’m still a slacker… will be for a few more days…
Sneezles61
Well i collected the fuit and froze it then thawed it then ran it through the crusher. It was so soft probably could have went directly to the press. Plenty more fruit the rest i won’t freeze. I seemed to get more juice with the frozen stuff. Wondering if it will make a difference in the result
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Well the perry is clearing nicely. The only thing i added was dextrose to get to 14.4bx up from 12bx added acid blend as Dave suggested and used the montrachet yeast. Did a sample today and very nice. Not sure to bottle carbonated or still
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