Preparing pears for perry

[CJ1]

I've made cider from apples for the last 3 years, but I have never done anything with my pear trees until today. Wifey and I picked ~12 bushels of pears this afternoon, getting everything we could reach on the two trees.

With apples we always give them a week to sweat before grinding and pressing them. Is this the appropriate approach to pears as well? Should we wait longer since pears take longer to get soft? Basically, am I looking for the pears to feel the same as apples feel when they are ready to be crushed and pressed?

 

[CJ1]

It seems that I asked a question that no one here was prepared to answer. Rather than just leave this thread without an answer, I thought that I should post what I learned elsewhere so that perhaps this thread can help someone else in the future.

Pears do need to be sweat for two to seven days, but you need to carefully keep track of them. Pears begin to rot first at the core, so a few should be cut open daily during the sweating period to keep track of their progress.

After grinding, it is important to let the ground pears sit for a day before pressing. This dramatically increases juice yield.

I have 45 gallons of ground pears waiting to be pressed tomorrow evening. It should make for a good night.

 

[WVMJ]

We have only done pears once, exactly like you have done but used pectinase for pears from cidersupply.com. While sweating some of ours they went rotten fast, anything past a week for our wild pears would have been much to long. Pear made with honey is a very good match, a light honey. What kind of pears do you have and are you guys adding a source of tannins to them like crabapples? WVMJ

 

[CJ1]

I don't know what kind of pears they are. The two trees are about 20 feet apart, and I know of no other pear trees for miles, so they are definitely cultivars that will pollinate each other well.

My intention is to ferment it dry and then add tannins if needed. Based on eating a few of the pears, I am not sure that I will need to add anything.