Bullwinkle Perry

Classification: cider, perry, pears

Source: Fred Hardy (fcmbh@access.digex.net), HBD Issue #1780, 7/13/95

Bullwinkle is a golden semi-dry pear cider which has the character of a white wine with modest pear aroma and pears in the flavor. Pears are not as aggressively flavored as apples, so perry (pear cider) has subtle flavors enhanced by the sugars and acids used in preparation.

Ingredients:

5 gallons pear squeezings (juice) OG = 1.052
2 lb. light brown sugar
4 lb. white table sugar
1 tsp. grape tannin
2 tsp acid blend
3 tsp tartaric acid
5 tsp malic acid
1 1/2 tsp citric acid
2 5 gm packets Red Star Pasteur Champagne dried yeast

Procedure:

Make sure everything has been sanitized, and do not worry about camden tablets, boiling stuff, etc. This is a no-sweat recipe.

Heat 1 gallon of the juice enough so you can dissolve the sugars and additives in it. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Meanwhile reconstitute the dry yeast in a cup of warm (90-100 degrees F) water.

When the sugars are dissolved, dump the whole mess into a 5- gallon carboy, fit a blowoff tube and pitch the yeast. watch the liquid level in the carboy, and top up with fresh pear juice as needed. Fermentation will drop off in about a month. When it does, rack to a second carboy and top up with fresh cider.

Wait 45 days before bottling. Sample about 4 months after bottling. My last batch was made on 9/20/94, racked to the secondary on 10/20/94 and bottled 12/4/94. We began drinking it in April, and it was good and still improving. I am confident it will be all gone long before it reaches theoretical peak flavor.

Specifics:

OG: 1.095
FG: 0.96
Alcohol: ~12.3% abv