Herefordshire Perry

England's lost golden drink: the fermented juice of the ancient perry pear varieties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire: wild, tannic, almost wine-like, made from trees that lived before the Norman Conquest and cannot be grown anywhere else on earth

Origin: England

From the journey of Pear.

Perry, fermented pear juice, distinct from cider, was produced in the Three Counties region of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire for at least a thousand years before it was commercially revived in the 20th century. The perry pear varieties of this region, Blakeney Red, Stinking Bishop, Thorn, Merrylegs, Dead Boy, and dozens of others, are unlike any other pear: small, hard, massively tannic, often astringent raw, and useless for eating. They exist solely to make perry. Many of the old perry pear trees in the Three Counties are 200–300 years old; some are believed to be older. The varieties are so site-specific that trees grafted from Herefordshire stock and planted elsewhere rarely produce juice of the same character. The tradition of perry-making was documented by John Evelyn in Pomona (1664), which was appended to his Sylva, a systematic survey of English orchards, and cited perry pear orchards in Herefordshire as producing drinks that 'excel the best wine of France.' Perry was the favoured drink of farm labourers in the Three Counties, often paid partly in perry as a form of wages. The commercial perry 'Babycham' (produced from concentrate from the 1950s) damaged the reputation of genuine perry severely; the artisanal revival of real perry from named single-variety pears is relatively recent (from c. 1990) and is led by small producers in Herefordshire.

Ingredients

Fruit

  • 10 kg perry pears, ideally named varieties (Blakeney Red, Thorn, Moorcroft), or use a mix of very tannic, hard cooking pears as a substitute

Yeast

  • 1 sachet Champagne yeast or cider yeast (if wild fermentation is not desired)

Other

  • Water, for rinsing

Optional

  • 1 Campden tablet sodium metabisulphite, optional, for sulphiting the must before fermentation (traditional perry uses wild yeast and no sulphites)

Method

  1. Allow the perry pears to mellow: after harvesting (October–November), leave the pears in a cool, dry place for 1–3 weeks until they are just beginning to soften slightly and the starch has converted to sugar. Do not let them rot. The timing is critical; too early and the juice lacks sugar; too late and the pectin breaks down and produces haze.
  2. Mill the pears: crush the mellowed perry pears using a scratter (a traditional pear mill) or a modern fruit crusher to break down the flesh into a pomace. The pomace will be extremely tannic and astringent; this is correct.
  3. Press the pomace in a traditional rack-and-cloth press or a modern basket press to extract the juice. Yield is typically 50–60%; 10kg of pears should yield 5–6 litres of juice. The fresh perry juice (must) will be pale golden to amber and will smell intensely of pear and tannin.
  4. Transfer the must to a clean fermentation vessel (a traditional wooden barrel or a modern food-grade plastic fermenter). If using wild yeast: simply seal with an airlock and allow to ferment at cellar temperature (10–15°C). If using Champagne yeast: optionally add one crushed Campden tablet, wait 24 hours, then pitch the yeast.
  5. Ferment at cellar temperature (10–15°C) for 3–6 weeks until fermentation is complete and the specific gravity has stabilised. Rack off the lees (sediment) into a clean vessel. Allow to clear for a further 2–4 weeks.
  6. Bottle when clear, either still (traditional farmhouse style) or lightly sparkling (add 5–8g of sugar per litre before bottling into pressure-rated bottles for a natural secondary fermentation). Store for at least 2 weeks before drinking. Traditional Herefordshire perry is served at cellar temperature, not chilled.

Notes

The Stinking Bishop cheese (made in Gloucestershire and washed in perry from the Stinking Bishop pear variety) is perhaps the most famous product of the perry tradition beyond perry itself. The pear variety (named after a notorious 19th-century local farmer, Fred Bishop, not from the smell of the fruit) gives the cheese its distinctive washed rind. The Slow Food Foundation lists numerous perry pear varieties as 'Ark of Taste' products; rare varieties of cultural and agricultural importance threatened with extinction. The Three Counties perry tradition is considered as significant to English agricultural heritage as Champagne is to French wine culture.

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