BrayOak Pear Cider

There is much debate on what makes a perry or pear cider.

Some say that they are the same thing - cider made with only pears; others say that it is a mix of both cider apples and pears.  So to decide once and for all, we decided to put it to the test!

We thought that it would also be a good time to test the new upgrades to the Mule - now named Mule II, and press both pears and cider apples together to make pear cider!

We decided to go with both pears and apples for one main reason: we know that the apples we used in our three cider brews contain a lot of natural yeasts, so if the pears we buy for our pear cider/perry doesn’t produce enough yeast, we could rely on our apples.  We are still not convinced by adding yeasts, like adding champagne yeast to our brews, but prefer natural yeasts in our fruit.

Making perry is just as easy as making cider.  We took twenty varieties of three different apples, and thirty green pears. You are supposed to use red pears, but these pears were juicy and very sweet - perfect for our perry.

Like with our apple brews, we diced and mulched the pears and apples and then pressed the cheese through a hesain cloth, collecting the juices in a bucket underneath.

Because the apples and pears aready contain natural sugars and yeast, we only have to leave the brew to stand for a few days.  Once the perry is giving off the right smells (sweet alcohol smells), we’ll then strain it through a musin cloth and an in-line funnel filter, into a five litre demijon.  We might add a little extra sugar, just to give it an extra poke - other than that everything in this will be kept natural!

We’ll keep you updated when we bottle it, but in the meantime you can see the video of it been made here, or on YouTube.com