Perry and pear cider are both made from pears, but the similarities end there. Pear cider can be made with imported pear juice or concentrate and can even include some apple juice. The main difference between perry and pear cider is that pear cider can use juice from edible pear varieties like Barnet, Bartestree Squash, Chaceley Green, Clusters, Coppy, Dead Boy, Ducksbarn, Hendre Huffcap, High Pear, Late Treacle, Lumber, Merrylegs, Newbridge, Red Pear, Sack, and White Longdon. “Proper” perry, on the other hand, is made only from proper perry pears. Perry pears are smaller than culinary or dessert pears. As with apple cider, the fruit is picked, crushed, and pressed to extract juice, which is then fermented. However, unlike apples, all pears contain a sugar alcohol called sorbitol that yeasts cannot metabolize. A completely fermented perry, therefore, has a residual sweetness missing from a dry apple cider. Since it’s Monday, the day of the week when Peaks & Pints offers cider flights, welcome to Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Pear.
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Pear
Cidrerie du Leguer Poire
5.5% ABV
Cédric Le Bloas grew up in Brittany, though after college and travelling France and the world, he returned to his home and founded Cidrerie du Léguer in 2016. Cédric and his wife are working organically — when the apples and pears fall (and only then), do they put them in crates to further ripen. Then they make their ciders. Cédric uses the old-school process of keeving — a difficult, time-consuming, labor-intensive process that naturally settles the must and creates an off-dry cider — and all fermentations are natural. The ciders are bottled with no sulfur. Cédric’s poiré is refreshing and bright off-dry perry cider full of energy with a rustic carbonation.
Double Mountain Perry
6.3% ABV
“Passing on the chance to create a cider with pears from our backyard, which are the best pears in the world, was not an option. With this in mind, we created a slightly sweet, yet satisfying perry that is most assuredly not your grandma’s pear cider,” said Daniel O’Brien, a brewer at Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery. Double Mountain pressed Starkrimson and Comice pears together for their Perry giving it an aroma of honey, juicy pear, and green apple that ends in a delicately sweet, gracefully tart, and crisp pear cider.
Finnriver Pear Cider
6.5% ABV
Finnriver Farm & Cidery’s small batch Pear Cider features cider fermented on the farm using 100 percent organic apple juice pressed from Washington apples. Finnriver ferments the apple juice, then sweetens it with organic pear for additional depth, sweetness, and flavor, although apples rule the nose here. There’s a certain bitterness grounding the pear flavor, pulling it out of the realm of single-note sweetness.
Channel Marker Dry Pear
6.5% ABV
The next time you enjoy a pear, close your eyes, and focus on the extraordinary flavors and aromas of this everyday fruit. The humble pear expresses itself with elegance and a crisp acidity in Channel Marker Cider‘s dry, crisp, refined, and elegantly crafted Dry Pear. It captures the essence of
orchard-ripened pears in a refreshing, fruit-forward experience.
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