I don't know anything about fire-blight resistance. I live in Northern
Illinois. I do have a tiny bit of experience with "pear cider". Last
year was an incredible year for fruit for us. After we picked and sold
apples and pears and plums and made all the applesauce we could stand
to, we cleaned off the Chojuro asian pear and the Freedom and Gala apple
trees and hauled about 3 bushels to the local cider mill. I would
estimate that it was about half pears and half mixed apples. We came
home with nearly 12 gallons of juice. Everyone enjoyed it very much. The
operator of the cider mill described it as "kind of light, but not bad."
It really didn't taste like pear. The pears are very firm. He had to be
careful not to overtax the chopper. They are also extremely juicy.
Unfortunately, none of the cider got a chance to get hard so I don't
know how that would be. The kids all really like the asian pears. I
prefer the Seckel pears for myself. I hope that this year is just as
good for the trees.