A colleague of mine gave me 3 carrier bags of pears last week, which are now bubbling away in a couple of demijohns.
All I did was pulp them in a black bucket using a length of 3x4 like a piledriver, then I squished the mush through my apple press (the "cake" was pretty dry, but the compost bin I put it in stinks like a brewery now :)). It came out at an OG of 1053, to which I added a general purpose wine yeast. I am optimistic that it will finish as about 5 - 6% abv.
Question is this - my colleague has loads more pears ripening on the tree, so am I likely to get more sugar and therefore potentially more alcohol out of another 3 bags if she brings me riper pears in a couple of weeks' time? My dad visited a cider makers in Somerset recently and was told that apples and pears will produce a maximum of 6% abv as natural juice.
update 9/9/05 - pear-juice alcohol came out at 4.8%. Cider getting under way tonight :D