How many pears?

[mctoon]

I have approx 7Kg of pears, is that enought to make 1 gallon

Cheers Mal

[SiSandrine]

Depends on what you plan to make. If you say wanted to make a perry and planned to crush and press the pears then as a rule of thumb I think you would probably get between 1/2 to 1 gallon of juice (depending on the efficiency of the press and the juiciness of the pears).
If you plan to make wine then you would probably have enough for 3 gallons. Opinion is largely divided on pear wine though. There is a thread in the recipe's section here:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=1776

[David]

Freezing (at least 3 days), defrosting and pressing should produce over a gallon of pure pear juice (I get 67-70% extraction).

I've found the ripest pears produce a more golden juice, but are more inclined to squirt pulp through the straining bag when pressing, and the more greener pears can produce a slightly whitetish juice - rather like Sunraysia or Granniini pear juices. To get the best results requires sorting through trays of pears every few days picking out those ready for freezing - which is what I've being doing for a few weeks. You can always just keep adding to the bag(s) in the freezer until you have enough to press.

If some pulp comes through with the juice you can get rid of it by pouring into bottles right up to the top and putting them in a pasteuriser to process in the normal way and the sediment will be pushed out the top like toothpaste out of a tube, leaving just clear juice behind.

Placing them in a deep (jam?) pan full of water and heating to 70% for max 20mins would probably also do the same trick.

Another WAH pear wine thread here:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/s...ead.php?t=4075