We have just been given 11.5 kg of conference pears in good condition.
They are about as ripe as conference pears get (i.e. hard!) and were
retrieved from the tree yesterday (as opposed to windfall).

We fancy trying to make perry and/or melomel - or something else if a
suitable suggestion arises - from them.

To date my wife & I have made about 15 extract beer kits and about a
dozen wine kits. We have plenty of one gallon demijohns and a few five
gallon fermenting bins. We have never 'craft brewed' beer from scratch,
nor made a fruit wine from scratch.

We do not have a press. We are not anxious to produce a prize-winning
delight, merely something interesting and pleasant to drink & share with
friends.

Suggestions, please?

(In the absence of anything else, we'll leave the pears for 7 days, wash
them, sanitise to kill wild yeast, bung them through the Kenwood mincer,
put juice in fermenting bin, put pulp in a cotton bags in same bin,
chuck in pectin enzyme stuff plus champagne yeast, ferment for a bit,
rack into secondary then leave to clear for lots of weeks, then decide
what to do next.)

Cross-posted to rec.crafts.winemaking and rec.crafts.brewing as you look
like the most likely sources of advice.

--
Sent from Simon's spamtrap,
Use the Reply-To address Simon Reed > to reply.

I vote for the "absence" plan; put the pears in a hop bag to facilitate
removing them. Refer to this recipe:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request203.asp from jack keller for
reference & you're off to the races... I've used this recipe 3 times & it's
always produced a decent wine. HTH, good luck & cheers, bob


"Simon Reed" > wrote in message
...
> We have just been given 11.5 kg of conference pears in good condition.
> They are about as ripe as conference pears get (i.e. hard!) and were
> retrieved from the tree yesterday (as opposed to windfall).
>
> We fancy trying to make perry and/or melomel - or something else if a
> suitable suggestion arises - from them.
>
> To date my wife & I have made about 15 extract beer kits and about a
> dozen wine kits. We have plenty of one gallon demijohns and a few five
> gallon fermenting bins. We have never 'craft brewed' beer from scratch,
> nor made a fruit wine from scratch.
>
> We do not have a press. We are not anxious to produce a prize-winning
> delight, merely something interesting and pleasant to drink & share with
> friends.
>
> Suggestions, please?
>
> (In the absence of anything else, we'll leave the pears for 7 days, wash
> them, sanitise to kill wild yeast, bung them through the Kenwood mincer,
> put juice in fermenting bin, put pulp in a cotton bags in same bin,
> chuck in pectin enzyme stuff plus champagne yeast, ferment for a bit,
> rack into secondary then leave to clear for lots of weeks, then decide
> what to do next.)
>
> Cross-posted to rec.crafts.winemaking and rec.crafts.brewing as you look
> like the most likely sources of advice.
>
> --
> Sent from Simon's spamtrap,
> Use the Reply-To address Simon Reed > to reply.

I have made peach wine several times from scratch and I just sliced
them into 1/4" thick wedges. Once the yeast gets going, the pears
will break down and release the juice.

You may want to freeze them after slicing. This may help to release
the juice even more.

Good luck!

Alex.


On Oct 4, 2:35 pm, Simon Reed > wrote:
> We have just been given 11.5 kg of conference pears in good condition.
> They are about as ripe as conference pears get (i.e. hard!) and were
> retrieved from the tree yesterday (as opposed to windfall).
>
> We fancy trying to make perry and/or melomel - or something else if a
> suitable suggestion arises - from them.
>
> To date my wife & I have made about 15 extract beer kits and about a
> dozen wine kits. We have plenty of one gallon demijohns and a few five
> gallon fermenting bins. We have never 'craft brewed' beer from scratch,
> nor made a fruit wine from scratch.
>
> We do not have a press. We are not anxious to produce a prize-winning
> delight, merely something interesting and pleasant to drink & share with
> friends.
>
> Suggestions, please?
>
> (In the absence of anything else, we'll leave the pears for 7 days, wash
> them, sanitise to kill wild yeast, bung them through the Kenwood mincer,
> put juice in fermenting bin, put pulp in a cotton bags in same bin,
> chuck in pectin enzyme stuff plus champagne yeast, ferment for a bit,
> rack into secondary then leave to clear for lots of weeks, then decide
> what to do next.)
>
> Cross-posted to rec.crafts.winemaking and rec.crafts.brewing as you look
> like the most likely sources of advice.
>
> --
> Sent from Simon's spamtrap,
> Use the Reply-To address Simon Reed > to reply.

You seem to be aware that perry is technically (supposedly) made from
pears using only their naturally included sugar. However, I made a
pear wine using the peach wine recipe and whole fruit and am very
pleased with the results - I took my sg to just under 1.100

Keller rarely gives bad advice, I'd second the suggested recipe.

Jim

On Oct 4, 10:35 pm, Simon Reed > wrote:
> We have just been given 11.5 kg of conference pears in good condition.
> They are about as ripe as conference pears get (i.e. hard!) and were
> retrieved from the tree yesterday (as opposed to windfall).
>
> We fancy trying to make perry and/or melomel - or something else if a
> suitable suggestion arises - from them.
>
> To date my wife & I have made about 15 extract beer kits and about a
> dozen wine kits. We have plenty of one gallon demijohns and a few five
> gallon fermenting bins. We have never 'craft brewed' beer from scratch,
> nor made a fruit wine from scratch.
>
> We do not have a press. We are not anxious to produce a prize-winning
> delight, merely something interesting and pleasant to drink & share with
> friends.
>
> Suggestions, please?
>
> (In the absence of anything else, we'll leave the pears for 7 days, wash
> them, sanitise to kill wild yeast, bung them through the Kenwood mincer,
> put juice in fermenting bin, put pulp in a cotton bags in same bin,
> chuck in pectin enzyme stuff plus champagne yeast, ferment for a bit,
> rack into secondary then leave to clear for lots of weeks, then decide
> what to do next.)
>
> Cross-posted to rec.crafts.winemaking and rec.crafts.brewing as you look
> like the most likely sources of advice.
>
> --
> Sent from Simon's spamtrap,
> Use the Reply-To address Simon Reed > to reply.