Knowing my interest in fermented beverages and making new things, a coworker has given me fifteen or twenty pounds of smallish, hard pears, now I am trying to figure out what to make with them. Pears (and apples) are typically handled a bit differently than regular fruits when making ferments. Often one makes perry (pear cider), and I could do that, only I don’t have a cider press. I could instead make pear wine, but most of the recipes seem to need a fruit bag, which I don’t have. (A fruit bag is a fine mesh bag that brewers use to keep fruit pulp separate from the juice when making wine.) Finally, I’ve found a recipe for something called “Matched Wine.” I have no idea where the name comes from, but it fits my two governing criteria now: I won’t need a cider press or a fruit bag.
We shall see how this turns out. The pears are hard but pretty ripe, so I only have a limited time to get this started. Stay tuned for more details…
Greenfae's Leaves 
sactownjimmy said,
September 26, 2013 at 7:51 pm
Lambic or sour?
greenfae said,
September 26, 2013 at 9:50 pm
I’d love to make a lambic some day. I haven’t yet made my first beer, though, and the little bit of reading I did about lambics in the brewer’s forums seemed to suggest that the fruit gets added much later to a lambic, rather than on the front end like with wine. Since I have the pears now, pear-raisin wine it is. Have you had much experience making lambics? I really know very little about that process, although eventually I hope change that.
sactownjimmy said,
September 27, 2013 at 12:22 am
I would freeze the pears. Sounds like you know how to brew, make a nice blonde ale stick it in a barrel or stainless keg let it sit then add the pears.
A gift of Twenty or so pounds of pears will hopefully turn into a fine wine | My Brew Log said,
September 26, 2013 at 9:08 pm
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