Perry (Pear)

You will need

• Pears (perry pears if you can get them, else ripe dessert/cooking pears)about 7 kg to press ~4.5 L
• Campden tablet1
• Pectic enzymeper dose
• Cider/wine yeast1 sachet

Picking it at the right moment

• Pear

  Pears ripen OFF the tree — pick when a fruit parts with a gentle lift; it is ready to use when the flesh at the neck gives slightly to a thumb.

Method

1. 1

   Sanitise. Let the pears ripen until they give slightly at the neck, then crush and press for juice, exactly as for cider.

2. 2

   The lesson: perry is not just 'cider from pears'. Pears carry sorbitol, a sugar the yeast cannot fully ferment, so a perry keeps a natural soft sweetness and body that a cider does not — you do not need to back-sweeten it.

3. 3

   Add pectic enzyme and a campden tablet; wait 24 hours.

4. 4

   Take a reading and pitch yeast. Ferment cool and slow.

5. 5

   Rack when it falls clear. It will taste gently sweet and full even when the yeast has finished — that is the sorbitol, working for you.

6. 6

   Bottle still, and drink within the year while it is fresh and floral.