Fermenting Perry on the Fruit

<editor's note>
The style presentation at last month's meeting was on Mead and Cider 
(which includes perry). And Sue has been very generous in spreading the 
bounty of her sand pear harvest to various brewers in the club. So I thought 
there might be some interest in the following post from the Cider Digest 
#918, 13 September 2001.
</editor's note>

Subject: perry
From: Bob and Winnie
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 22:20:09 -0600

> Greetings,
>
My name is Bob and I am a professional vintner/winery owner in the western US. One of the most popular wines I make is a pear wine that is not in any way bland. It is full bodied, almost dry, unfiltered, unsulfited and very rich. It is made from Bartlett type pears that grow locally. The secrets to our success are as follows:

When you crush a juice and then ferment the juice, you are making a "white" wine. This will always be more bland than if you ferment on the fruit, it will also not age as well. At our winery we carefully ripen the pears in batches and pitch them into the mash after cleaning and maceration. As long as the fermentation is vigorous, there is minimal danger of infection or other problems. Sometimes this initial process will last for a couple of weeks until all or most of the pears are used.

When you ferment on the fruit, you are producing a heartier wine/perry than just the juice. It will contain many healthful and necessary components for the proper ageing and balance of the wine; one of these components being tannin.

After the initial fermentaion is over (judgement call here), strain the must with a nylon bag and put into a carboy or a barrel. Sometimes if I am in a bind for time, I will let the must settle for a day or so, so that the fruit pulp (brun) goes to the top and then siphon the young wine from underneath it into the secondary vessel. We use (older) French Oak barrels for the pear wine as the subtle oakiness is very complimentery to the richness of this wine. Since there seems to be a modern paranoia about lees, you may want to rack as often as you feel necessary, but everything here is made "sur lees" and in fact I bottle directly out of the barrel to the finish bottle.

Very simply, do not press anything or attempt to separate the juice as this is a complicated and risky process. Merely wash, sort and crush the fruit, ferment in a suitable vessel, and then age properly (at least a year).

Best regards, Bob Sorenson, Native Wines

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