Pear brandy ?

Information about fruit/vegetable type washes.

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Bavis54
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Pear brandy ?

Post by Bavis54 »

Hi fellas, I made a pear wash 3 weeks ago, in two 5 gal buckets I washed pears, then simply mashed em really really good, once the buckets were 3/4 way to top I added 1 lb sugar and filled with 100 degree water. Later once cooled I added bread yeast. At time I thought the sugar was needed, but now I wish I hadn't used it, anyway I checked it last night, fermentation almost done, and I checked the sugar reading, on both buckets it was almost 1.000. I dunno wat it was starting out bc at time I hadn't bought sugar hydrometer yet, now that I have one I thought I'd check it. If I read it properly the wash has very little alcohol. Is this right? I can smell the alcohol in it, it's not like my sugar/corn wash but I can taste n smell the alcohol in the wash. I thought it'd be at least 6-9 percent but maybe I'm reading it wrong? Any thoughts??
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cranky
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by cranky »

Your hydrometer won't tell you how much sugar you started with one a ferment is done, your figure is probably about right. When it finishes run it and see how it turns out. Don't expect cuts to be the same as whiskey and next time go ahead and try it without sugar and use a wine yeast.
Bavis54
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by Bavis54 »

You guys on here recommended not to add sugar, I tasted the juice, and it was sweet but I thought a little granulated sugar would up my production, I wish now I had listened to u guys bc after wash was done I read several diff ppl commenting on how subtle pear flavor is. It's almost done working off, it's gonna be dry I can already tell that, I jus hope it has at least some of the pear essence left. Never done a brandy before, made lots of muscadine wine but never distilled it. That's somethin I'm really looking forward to this summer, I wanna try making grappa or a muscadine brandy, I have loads n loads of muscadines on my place. Thanks for ur help
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cranky
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by cranky »

I actually find pear flavor comes across fairly strong although it might be hard to reconstruct. I did an Asian pear once and it came out tasting like little white flowers rather than what you would expect pear to taste like but my European pear stuff comes across pear dominant with most of the flavor coming in right at the beginning of the tails but can be tasted throughout the run. I think you will be OK with the sugar you added, although you can usually rely on pears and apples coming in around 6% without adding sugar. I am more concerned about the yeast but am interested in seeing how it works out for you.
seamusm53
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by seamusm53 »

Many/most fruits do not have enough sugar to make much of a mash without help. Your addition of one pound is not alot. And there is a real art to making a distillate (brandy) in terms of ending up with fruit flavor in the final product. Some will add back backset or heads to the final distillate or putting fruit in a thumper. Some just soak macerated fruit in the distillate and filter off the solids. But your experience is not unusual.
Bavis54
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by Bavis54 »

I'm kinda surprised myself how the wash tastes, it's pretty dry, and although there still pulp in the wash it doesn't taste how I thought it would, it's definitely Anjou pear tasty, I jus didn't realize it would ferment and have such a dry or clean finish. It may turn out fine we will see soon, if it deads by weds I gna jus let it clear and distill on Saturday . I dunno whether to put pears in thump keg or no. I hadn't had much luck with flavoring thumper as of late
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Bavis54
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Re: Pear brandy ?

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Two nights ago I distilled the pear wash, I am extremely pleased with how it came out, outta 7.5-8 gal of wash I got lil over a gallon of finished product. Only one thing kinda messes with me- on the night I ran it, each pint I smelled, numbered, n tasted a spoon full, and on the night I ran it it seemed to have a way way more pear taste than now, I aired it out a day, with coffee filters on top ,it still tastes n smells great, it jus seemed that it lost some of it. I wasn't drunk or even buzzed when I ran it, maybe I'm nuts but I swear it had a more pear taste. Anyone ever experience this or have any thoughts?
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NZChris
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by NZChris »

Bavis54 wrote:Two nights ago I distilled the pear wash, I am extremely pleased with how it came out, outta 7.5-8 gal of wash I got lil over a gallon of finished product. Only one thing kinda messes with me- on the night I ran it, each pint I smelled, numbered, n tasted a spoon full, and on the night I ran it it seemed to have a way way more pear taste than now, I aired it out a day, with coffee filters on top ,it still tastes n smells great, it jus seemed that it lost some of it. I wasn't drunk or even buzzed when I ran it, maybe I'm nuts but I swear it had a more pear taste. Anyone ever experience this or have any thoughts?
Some of the volatiles that make it taste like pear evaporated when you aired it.
Bavis54
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by Bavis54 »

Ok thanks for ur help, for me this is some of the smoothest alcohol ever been able to make, no huge huge burn or twang like rotgut shine, it is very smooth . I'm definitely hooked on the little or no added sugar way, thanks a bunch guys-
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jonnys_spirit
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Re: Pear brandy ?

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I had 10gallons of pesr and elderberry wine that I never really liked. Made it with probably three 5g buckets of chopped pears, 1 gallon of pear wine making syrup, sugar to 1.090, couple pounds of dried elderberries. This sat for a year and was still dropping very fine sediment. It was just "ok" as far as my tastes were concerned so I ran it through the still. Absolutely love the product. I put it on oak i toasted and aged. I was holing that I could keep this stuff around but it's the goto at this time. I thought I would never make pear wine again but will definitely be making a pear wash and running it.

Cheers!
-j
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i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
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