[nateo]

Any recommendations on how to process the pears? I've got a bushel coming and don't really have a strategy yet. I'm working on making a press, but I'm not sure if that's the best way to process the pears.

[gmac]

I think there's another post going on here somewhere about Asian pears and having to grind them.  Not sure if regular pears are the same or not but when the pears here are ready, I'll be doing the same thing so I'm mostly replying just to get this thread on the reply list.
Sorry I have nothing else to add.

[nateo]

I saw that other thread. They said you can crush them if they're underripe, otherwise you can macerate them and ferment on the pulp. I didn't know if the variety makes a difference on that. I'll probably just grind 'em up and ferment on the pulp.

[tschmidlin]

It really depends on the firmness.  Bartlett's could easily be ripe enough to be mushy.  Asian pears are much firmer, more like apples.  I'm not sure how to process the Bartlett's though, I could see them gumming up the bag in my press.  I'd be tempted to try a juicer and see what you get.

[stlaleman]

I have had great luck running mine through a juicer.

[Jimmy K]

Sources I've seen estimate one gallon of juice from a bushel of pears. Seems to me like if you ferment on the pulp, you then have to figure out how to separate about a gallon of perry from a bushel of pulp - without aerating it.

[nateo]

My pears showed up. Now I need a plan of attack.

What I have: paint strainer, cheesecloth, various pots, all my regular brewing stuff. I don't have a juicer, or access to a juicer.

When I crushed blackberries, I just got two pots that nested together, put the blackberries in the bigger pot, and stood on the smaller pot to squish the berries.

The pears aren't ripe yet. I was thinking of waiting until they get ripe then just squishing them whole. Is that a good idea? I also thought of cutting them up or grinding them, squishing them in the pots, then squeezing the pulp in the bags to get more juice out.

i was also thinking of brewing a session mead on some of the pulp to get some more flavor from it.

[Jimmy K]

I've heard stories of apples pressed whole and it was pretty unsuccessful. Berries just release the juice much easier. Pome fruits need pathways for the juice to escape (think like rice hulls) and grinding them creates those pathways. No crushie no juicie.  How many do you have? I'd at least cut them up into smaller pieces.
 
Fermenting something on the leftovers sounds like a good idea.

[Jimmy K]

Or whack em up with a chunky meat tenderizer. Useful and fun!

[nateo]

So I let the pears get really ripe, but not rotten. They crushed easily without cutting them into pieces. Really, they only crushed slightly harder than the blackberries I did a few weeks ago. My wife squished them with her hands, and a potato masher, and I put the pulp into a paint strainer bag and squeezed out the juice. We ended up with about 14L of juice, and maybe 4-5L of pulp. 

I sulfited them because I was too afraid to do a spontaneous ferment. But the juice smelled amazing so I have high hopes for this one. It's my first perry so maybe I'm getting my hopes too high.