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Hi all, just found this site after hearing being mentioned on Newstalk last week, can't believe i didn't hear about the brew meet in the Franciscan Brewery. I've been brewing my own cider the last few years with some success and am currently brewing a demijohn of pear cider after picking up cheap pears in the discount section in Tesco. I'll see how these South African pears do and let people know the end result.
Looking forward to brewing some beer next.

"bugs":2eyd4bmz wrote: can't believe i didn't hear about the brew meet in the Franciscan Brewery.[/quote:2eyd4bmz]That's probably my fault then. I knew the best marketing strategy was A Big Megaphone...

Welcome to the site, bugs. If you need any advice or whatnot, just shout. And there'll be plenty of other meets: keep watching the events thread.

Interesting, since swmbo has a bit of a penchant for pear cider from those two nasty sources readily available across the country, and since I have recently acquired a couple of demijohns, perhaps this might appease her a bit.
How much pears did you use, and how do you extract the juice? finally what yeast did you use?

Hi Bugs.
Hope the perry[/url:3p4bhv3p] goes well. How did you extract the juice? I tried using a juicer to do it last year and it was a complete debacle.

Thanks guys, I juiced the pears with a Breville juicer, the pears need to be green and hard for them to be juiced properly (as with any fruit you put through an electric centrifugal juicer). I bought the juicer 4 years ago and it hasn't let me down considering I have probably juiced about 100 boxes of apples for a commercial operation. I juiced about 8 bags of pears and I used 'Youngs' brew yeast that i bought from a brew supplier in dublin. Has anybody used S02 in cider brewing to kill off bad bacteria?

Hi bugs, welcome to ICB. I'd just started out on the cider route myself, last autumn. I'd recently acquired an orchard and felt tons of apples rotting on the ground was just the wrong approach. Last year I pressed five gallons and bucketed it under airlock to see what would evolve. Things didn't go so well for a few reasons but it was a learning experience nonetheless.
After plenty of advice on this forum I've sweetened and bottled a dozen litres in a forlorn attempt at rescuing what remains. Touch wood.

Looking forward to a better attempt this season.

And yes, SO2 was used, in the form of crushed Campden tablets. And I'm sure that was not one of the reasons.

/J