In my last home brewing adventure, I had crafted an experimental pear cider for my lovely wife who doesn’t care for beer, but is a big fan of Ace Pear Cider. I had looked up some tips and suggestions on how to turn the stock cider kit into a pear cider, but I mostly played it by ear. Having never brewed a cider before, I found it interesting in what was different than brewing beer. The cider spends a lot less time in the keg, and it is advised that it spend more time in the bottles. After everything, though, it was unanimously decided that the results were mediocre.
When I was bottling the cider, I noticed that the cider was still very cloudy, which I attributed to the puréed pears. I wasn’t overly concerned about the cloudiness, though. The bubbles had subsided indicating that the yeast had done it’s job and gone back to sleep. We waited for the 4th of July for the inaugural tasting of the pear cider. Upon opening, the cider literally exploded out of the bottle, so the carbonation was really good. It also poured clear, which was really nice to see after how cloudy it was at bottling. There was a subtle pear scent, but it was fairly well masked by the apple cider smell from the stock kit.
The taste took a similar route as the scent. There was the subtlest hint of pear, but for the most part it was a pretty clear apple flavor. Additionally, it was very clinical in taste, with very little body. It was also lacking any sweetness that typically makes ciders appealing. Heather specifically likes the Ace cider because it’s got a strong pear cider with a nice, overall, sweetness to it. I’ve got some work to do. A bunch of us talked it over at our 4th of July gathering and came up with some ideas on how to make it better, so I’m prepared to run another batch of it. I know I can perfect this cider, it’s just going to take some more experimentation. Fortunately, every batch is still drinkable, and if they’re like this first, pretty darned strong.
I’ll be sure to continue to record my experiments and results here until I get the recipe worked out. In the mean time, it looks like we’re going to have a lot of mediocre pear cider around the house.