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

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.

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

Bob,

You have said that your wine tastes bitter/sour. Have you tested the
TA?

Sometimes with fruit wines, an acidity which is too LOW can make the
other flavors, especially the tannic and bitter flavors, seem more
pronounced. This seems likely since you were working with very ripe
pears.

If you have the means of testing the TA, I would do so first. If not,
try bench trials with adding acid in a couple of different proportions
to a small amount of the wine.

I've made pear wine that turned out great, so don't give up. I also
routinely make a banana wine for blending (sounds weird, I know) using
overripe bananas which I freeze a few at the time as they become too
ripe to eat.

My banana wine, which sounds like it might have a lot of the same
fruit characteristics of your pear wine, ALWAYS requires the addition
of a decent amount of acid blend.

Hope this helps.

Leigh

I'll try adding the acid blend.
I tried adding a bit of sugar, but it's still terrible.
It's not a vinegar smell so the acid may help.

Thanks for the tip.



"Leigh S." > wrote in message
...
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

Bob,

You have said that your wine tastes bitter/sour. Have you tested the
TA?

Sometimes with fruit wines, an acidity which is too LOW can make the
other flavors, especially the tannic and bitter flavors, seem more
pronounced. This seems likely since you were working with very ripe
pears.

If you have the means of testing the TA, I would do so first. If not,
try bench trials with adding acid in a couple of different proportions
to a small amount of the wine.

I've made pear wine that turned out great, so don't give up. I also
routinely make a banana wine for blending (sounds weird, I know) using
overripe bananas which I freeze a few at the time as they become too
ripe to eat.

My banana wine, which sounds like it might have a lot of the same
fruit characteristics of your pear wine, ALWAYS requires the addition
of a decent amount of acid blend.

Hope this helps.

Leigh