Pear Apple Blend

[Raymond Treize]

I've got an abundance of dessert pears this year (mostly Bartlett). I am wondering if anyone has successfully blended dessert pears with apples to make something drinkable? I've access to crabs and plus some unknown varieties of apples. Any tips greatly appreciated. I am in Eastern Canada.

[Ray Blockley]

Hi Ray,

From a UK perspective:

We make a commercially very popular whole-juice cider / "pider" using a blend of Conference pears (dessert pears) & Dabinett bittersweets. 
Initially we made a 1:1 blend of equal parts, but found a ratio (by volume) of 3 parts Conference pears to 3 parts Dabinett plus 1 part mixed dessert apples gave a better result, based on nose & flavour.
We use trugs to measure out the 7 parts after finding that this produced just enough milled pulp to fill our Voran P100-P1 pack press for a single pressing. 

We mill the fruit in one go into a large "Plasterers Bath" that takes the approx 100kgs of pulp to fill our press - but read on... 

Points to note, purely based on our experience: 
Ripe dessert pears make a very soft, mushy pulp after milling.
We get round this by milling alternatively 1 lot of Conference, followed by 1 lot of Dabinett, & so on, finishing off with the mixed desserts.
We spread each milling across the bottom of the "bath" so we end up with layers.

Have attached 3 photos to give a better idea - note the very "liquid" state of the ripe, milled pears.
We then mix this whole lot together so that the fibrous Dabinetts are roughly evenly spread through the lot, which makes pressing much easier - so no need for "rice hulls" & the like.
Note: We use fine mesh pressing cloths to contain this mix. The standard cloths supplied with the Voran are far too coarse & ends up with pulp & juice squirting out everywhere, plus very heavy deposits from the juice.   
Have attached a photo to show differences between the two types of cloths. 

Watch the acidity of the fresh-pressed juice - it may need lowering either by adding malic or by adding sharper / culinary apples into the dessert apple mix.  

We then proceed as normal, racking a couple of times - first racking after at least 6 months, as it will still throw a deposit that takes some time to firm up.
We don't filter or add any finings, nor pasteurise & it's always turned out bright & clear. 

As was often stated on here back in the early days (& a mantra I still go by when it comes to cider / perry making & available fruit): "If in doubt - do the experiment!"

Good luck. 🙂
Ray.  


  

On Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 10:22 AM Raymond Treize <ra...@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:

I've got an abundance of dessert pears this year (mostly Bartlett). I am wondering if anyone has successfully blended dessert pears with apples to make something drinkable? I've access to crabs and plus some unknown varieties of apples. Any tips greatly appreciated. I am in Eastern Canada.

--
--
Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
By joining the Cider Workshop, you agree to abide by our principles. Please see http://www.ciderworkshop.com/resources_principles.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/d16949a7-0a0c-456b-8767-fb2107ad38fbn%40googlegroups.com.

[Ray Blockley]

Oops. One of the photos didn't send - layer of pears (1 part of total 7) spread across bottom of plasterers bath. 

[Patrick McCauley]

I have a couple older dessert pear trees at my house that have lots of fruit every other year. On their own, they make a very underwhelming perry, but I have had good results mixing them with apples. I did a smaller portion than Ray did, as I like a more tart cider. The pears have a very high pH, too. I used 1/3 dessert pears, 1/3 sharp dessert apples(primarily what I think is York), and about 1/3 Harrison for some acid and tannin. The results were fantastic! In many ways it tasted just like an apple cider, though the pears added some nice  floral notes. It was more delicate than a straight apple cider. I would definitely try to add something for astringency, as Bartletts don't leave you with much body after fermentation. 

Pat McCauley 

On Thu, Sep 18, 2025, 5:22 AM Raymond Treize <ra...@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:

I've got an abundance of dessert pears this year (mostly Bartlett). I am wondering if anyone has successfully blended dessert pears with apples to make something drinkable? I've access to crabs and plus some unknown varieties of apples. Any tips greatly appreciated. I am in Eastern Canada.

--

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Dessert pears such as Bartlett have very low acidity and high pH. I have measured pH as high as 5 on some dessert pears!

If you have some crabs, it would probably make a good blend. I would blend in such proportions as to get a pH of about 3.6 (or if you rather measure total acidity, a TA of about 5 g/L as malic equivalent.)

[Raymond Auffrey]

Wow! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience. I’m taking notes. I’ve already pressed ripe pears before so I know all about the mushy pulp. Ha! 

Will experiment with different types of available apples. 

Cheers!

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/cider-workshop/AlcWfz27cBk/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/CAO7CN4%3DS4ZpBdxQy1LJxAGdW%3Deypo7g%2BDXJNcWfQrmnpquZcEA%40mail.gmail.com.
<Milling_Pears_1.jpg><Milling_Dabinetts.jpg><s_Press Cloth_2.jpg>

[Raymond Auffrey]

Thanks Pat. I appreciate it.

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/cider-workshop/AlcWfz27cBk/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/CAEUfQOyr1KG3dfTgcSZpYv8JgXZrG4agkN85eCNFUgV4fS208A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Raymond Auffrey]

Thanks Claude.

--
--
Visit our website: http://www.ciderworkshop.com
 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Cider Workshop" Google Group.
By joining the Cider Workshop, you agree to abide by our principles. Please see http://www.ciderworkshop.com/resources_principles.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Cider Workshop" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/cider-workshop/AlcWfz27cBk/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to cider-worksho...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/850a5c67-f04e-48b3-8299-7b75823340f5n%40googlegroups.com.