On Nov 3, 3:27*pm, "Bob Becker" > wrote:
> Last spring or early summer I bought 20-25 pounds of *really ripe* pears.
> I squished them up and followed a recipe for pear wine.
> I followed the steps and racked it into a carboy.
> This stuff has been sitting in the carboy for several months now,
> and *it's really terrible. *It has a kind of a bitter/sour taste, certainly
> nobody would enjoy drinking it.
>
> So... *do I toss it out, or are there any ideas out there about how
> I may rescue it. *The good news is that I don't have a lot of money
> invested in it - I got the pears for $3.00.
>
> Thanks for any ideas.
>
> BB


I don't have experience with pear wine, but here's all I can offer
based on general winemaking issues:

If the "sour" taste is like vinegar, then it's time to trash it.

If it's more of a tart-ness that is over the top (like a sour candy),
then you can try sweetening it--just take a small sample, add some
regular table sugar (keep track of how much), and see if it tastes
ok. If it's a little better, but not great, then try adding some more
sugar--if you can find an amount of sugar that makes it taste decent,
that's your answer. If not, I'm not sure what else can save it at
this point.

Bitterness isn't going away--sweetening might slightly mask it, but if
you extacted a lot of bitternes from the skins, then you are most
likely stuck with it.

Good luck,
Chris.