Straightforward · 23.0 litres · Perry
Perry
Pear cider, and a different animal from apple: higher in pH, lower in acid, and containing sorbitol that yeast cannot ferment, so a fully dry perry still tastes faintly sweet.
Starting sugar
11.0 Brix
2.64 kg of fermentable sugar
Original gravity
1.044
from the ingredients, not asserted
Finishing gravity
1.000
medium
Alcohol
5.8%
Brix alone predicts 6.0 to 6.6%
Residual sugar
13 g/L
approximate, from gravity
Ready after
6 months
best around 3 years
Made to Perry, and every computed figure lands inside the published range for it.
ABV inTA inpH inRS inWhat decides this wine
The pH, which is the one thing perry punishes. Pear juice regularly arrives at 3.9 or above, where sulphite barely works and spoilage organisms thrive. Acidify the juice into the low threes before you pitch, not afterwards.
What goes in
| Ingredient | Weight | Sugar | Volume | Share of sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pear juice About 23 litres. Perry pears are far better than eating pears, which have almost no tannin and even less acid. | 24.00 kg | 2.64 kg | 23.04 L | 100% |
| Wine tannin | 5 g | - | - | 0% |
| Yeast nutrient | 10 g | - | - | 0% |
The ingredients contribute 23.0 litres and the water makes up the rest to 23 litres. Those figures are checked against each other when the site is built, because a recipe whose volumes do not add up produces a wine weaker or stronger than every number above.
Acid and sulphite
Acidity of the must
4.5 g/L
at pH 3.90
No malolactic
4.5 g/L
the acidity you measure is the acidity you keep
Tartaric to add
23 g
to reach 5.5 g/L. Bench trial before treating the batch
Sulphite at bottling
1.3 g
potassium metabisulphite, for 31 mg/L free SO2 at pH 3.60
The batch
- Must volume
- 23 L
- Ferment at
- 15-18 C
- Molecular SO2 target
- 0.5 mg/L
- Malolactic
- No
- Yeast
- English Cider Yeastto 12%, low N
The sulphite figure is worked out against the pH of the finished wine, not of the must. Malolactic and deacidification both raise pH, and dosing a finished red to its must pH under-protects it by roughly a third. Recompute for your own reading.
Method
- 01Measure the pH first. Add tartaric to bring it to 3.5 or below before doing anything else.
- 02Sulphite at 50 mg/L and leave 24 hours.
- 03Pitch and ferment cool, 15 to 18C.
- 04Rack when it stops. The gravity will settle around 1.000 rather than 0.995 because of the sorbitol, and that is normal.
- 05Bulk age at least six months: young perry tastes of very little.
The two instruments this recipe needs
Every number on this page came from a hydrometer reading and a pH reading. Without those two you are following a recipe rather than making a wine, and the sulphite figure in particular is meaningless without a pH you have actually measured.
Measuring
Hydrometer and trial jar
SOLIGT Triple Scale Hydrometer and Glass Test Jar for Wine, Beer, Mead & Cider - ABV, Brix and Gravity Test Kit
$18.98
Tracks the ferment from must to dry. The gap between your starting and finishing gravity is the only reliable way to know the alcohol you actually made.
Measuring
pH meter
Apera Instruments AI1113 pH Calibration Buffer Solution Kit (7.00, 4.00), 8 oz. Each
$18.00
The most important instrument on this page. pH decides how much of your sulphite is actually protecting the wine, and dosing without knowing it is guesswork.