Pear wine and potatoes

Wine

Well, it's still Columbus day weekend, so I decided I would bite the bullet and do a batch of pear wine.  I looked at the pears yesterday and saw so many green ones that I had pretty much decided to wait until next week when they were riper.  Especially after reading online that over-ripe pears are best.  But I considered that there are some pears that are ripe now and some that are even overripe and will rot by next weekend...

So, I sorted through the pears until I had about 40 lbs (I used the bathroom scale). Then I washed and cut the bad spots out, then washed again and ground them up.  I placed the pulp in the nylon bag in the square fermenter.  I used the purple book recipe, but I deviated a bit.  Here is the recipe I essentially used:

• 40 lbs pears - ground up and placed in nylon bag in fermenter - this is DOUBLE what the recipe calls for!  These pears don't seem too juicy
• 2 gallons water (I may add more after I do first fermentation and remove the bag of pulp, if needed to get the 5 gallons I want)
• 4 lbs sugar (I brought the S.G. up to about 1.095, about where they advise it should be - I may add more sugar when I re-rack depending on taste.  Before I added sugar the S.G. was about 1.04)
• 4 tbsp acid
• 4 tsp pectic enzyme
• 5 tsp nutrient
• 5 campden tablets

The rest of the recipe was followed as written.

Sorted out the ripe and damaged ones.

Here is all that is left - probably another batch like this one?  Perry next time, I think!

More canned taters!

I finally got around to canning the rest of the "seconds" potatoes.  Some were looking might rough.  I really should go through and re-sort the "good" potatoes too, but I will do that later.

I got 17 pints!  Looking good now:

Once the starch sets, things will cloud up significantly, I am sure!