Tannin Brain

[Shaun Burnett]

Thought I’d try my hand at making a Perry.  We don’t have any dedicated Perry pears in NZ but I found a high tannin seedling pear and made just enough juice.  It’s currently stalled at SG 1.046 but I’m slowly trying to restart it.

Anyhow, it’s developed an incredible Tannin Brain which I thought some might like to see. It looks disgusting but the Perry still tastes ok with lovely honey tones. 

[Andrew Lea]

Interesting.  Looks like what can happen with Butt and other high-tannin UK perries! They polymerise readily and are hard to clear. 

Presumably the Perry was made 6+ months ago and is no longer fermenting? Pears can contain much sorbitol which is an unfermentable sugar. Many UK Perry pears can stick at SG 1.020 for this reason.

Possibly the answer here too? Do you have anyone locally who can analyse for sorbitol?  Both HPLC and enzymatic methods are available to a competent testing lab.

Andrew

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Wittenham Hill Cider Page

www.cider.org.uk

On 10 Nov 2025, at 21:20, Shaun Burnett <lone...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thought I’d try my hand at making a Perry.  We don’t have any dedicated Perry pears in NZ but I found a high tannin seedling pear and made just enough juice.  It’s currently stalled at SG 1.046 but I’m slowly trying to restart it.

Anyhow, it’s developed an incredible Tannin Brain which I thought some might like to see. It looks disgusting but the Perry still tastes ok with lovely honey tones. 

<IMG_6216.jpeg>

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[S & D Burnett]

Thanks.  That's interesting to learn that some famous English perry pears like Butt produce similar.  With this particular pear, it was made worse by the slight addition of a similar but less tannic pear juice which I used to top up with. Once I added the extra, combined they went milky... then more milky, then more and more until I ended up with the photo.  Next year my harvest timing will be much better and I hope to get enough juice to try this 100% pear on its own.

Thanks for the suggestion on testing - I will keep it in mind if I scale things up in the years to come. 

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