Anyone have any experience, either positive or negative? Thinking of a chocolate bourbon pear porter. also, how much # per gallon would you use?
Porters are intense, flavor-wise. I would guess you would need a crazy amount of pears to get that flavor to compete with the typical grain bill of a porter, let alone the chocolate and bourbon. Still, I would love to hear more if you go for it. I really like pears and pear cider/perry.
yeah, debating if i would reduce the pears and make an applesauce out of them (that's what i would do with blueberries). to be honest, i'm also contemplating making a pear cider and blending.
Pears have a type of sugar (can't remember now which one) which yeast doesn't ferment, hence why Perry is sweeter than Cider. You could use this to your advantage by brewing a beer that works well with a bit of sweetness (stout / porter / Bock), but agree that you might have to use a lot of pears! I think the addition of chocolate and bourbon would completely overpower any chance the pears had of exerting themselves, however they might still work by adding this sweetness.
I used to put a shot of bourbon in a pint glass and then pour a bottle of that woodchuck pear cider on top. It was pretty dope. I would definitely recommend a bourbon pear cider. So far as a porter w/ pears, I would go with around 20-25% brown malt in the grain bill and then only like 5% chocolate malt, to really get that earthy/cocoa thing going on. No other roasted malt, crystal as you see fit. That's all I got.
By pear cider do you mean Perry? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry Or do you mean blending an apple cider with pears to ferment? Both would be pretty great. I'd go with one of these routes. If you choose to do a beer, you'll most likely need to go much ligher in style than a porter.
Pear cider with a shot of Jameson's is fantastic. I will be making a pear / grape mead soon from fruit from our garden. The pears are patiently waiting in the freezer. The white wine grapes are almost ready.
Have 3 five-gallon buckets of pears that are screaming Berlinerweisse...alas, timing ain't right for a Berlinerweisse I haven't made yet
I brewed a saison with chardonnay soaked oak and pears. I used 1.5lbs of diced, frozen pears in the secondary for the last 7 days of fermentation in a 5gal batch. The pear and wine worked really well together, even if I didn't get the ratio right on the first try. I would probably up it to 2lbs in my next batch.
Anything's possible. I've heard that pear isn't a flavor that likes to come through--but when does that not hold true for fruit . I'd read up on perries before trying to add anything to a beer, and I'd double that so that when you add copious amounts of pear to a porter that it shines through. Let us know what you try to do and how it comes out.
