# Fruits besides apple for hard cider



## timstalltaletav

I got an email from Mr. Beer today that the cider kits are on sale.  One kit featured is pear cider.  Has anyone ever tried cider with pears?  How about some other seasonal fruits?

I'd like to restart my home brewing hobby and just might order that kit to kick start my hobby.


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## dirtsailor2003

Pear cider is great. Most other fruit flavored ciders are apple or pear based with the flavoring of the other fruits added. Our local cider house makes an apricot, a boysenberry, a blackberry, a black cherry, and a black cherry pomegranate. All of which use their apple cider as a base.


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## dirtsailor2003

We make one to three gallon batches of cider using this method:

http://www.howtomakehardcider.com/making.html


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## mountbaldy

You can make good cider with pears for sure.  It's known as peary in the UK.  I have never made it but I know it's a big deal in the UK.  I've tasted homemade pear brandy from Germany and that's awesome as well...  But making that is a whole other ball game.  Also some folks make cider from cherries, but they are less forgiving than apples or pears.  

You would do yourself a favor and steer away from Mr Beer kits. You can find one gallon kits for making beer and wine from places like Northern Brewer online.  Some of the one gallon kits out there are exceptional and they just added a line of one gallon premium wine kits. 

Cider can be challenging to get right, but if you follow a basic recipe you can get something decent even from store bought juice.  The hardest part in making cider is getting the acidity of the juice adjusted right.  I've been making hard cider for quite sometime and still struggle with this, even testing acidity.  Either way, the cider I make still turns out very good.  If you are looking for a sweet cider, it can be a bit trickier to get right.  We prefer a traditional dry English style cider, which is a bit more forgiving.  

Anyhow, if you have any questions about making your own cider, post them here and I'll try and answer them for you.  I ran/owned a homebrew shop for about 2 years and use to brew about 3 times per week. :-)


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## chasinmendo

Apples and pears are great but Asian plums also make a very nicely flavored wine with a great nose and high alcohol content. I have several trees of both red and yellow Asian plums and the red have a bit more astringency similar to tannin the yellow make great dessert wines.

Regards,

Chas


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## mtnman68

I have tried strawberry, and peach cider, it taste pretty good.


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## Plinsc

I buy peach cider here to drink


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## hb99

I've only made hard cider from apple juice.   I made about 15 gals of hard cider last year.  I make beer and mead also. 

I have a Pear mead, called a Perry, that I made over 4 years ago.  I got the pears from my tree out back.  It's past due for bottling, but I'll get around to it.

I have a Peach Mead planned for "someday".  LOL!

I made a Hard Lemon-Lime earlier this year.  It's ready to bottle also.  Kind of has a similar flavor to Mike's Hard Lemonade, but not quite.  It comes in just over 12% ABV.


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