Prickly Pear Fruit & Apple Wine

musty · 09-23-2009, 06:23 AM

My wife bought me a quart of local prickly pear fruit juice, as I've been talking up a prickly pear fruit brew for a while. Whelp, here's what I did:

1/3 cup Sonoran prickly pear fruit juice (~$40 for a quart--it's pure, no water)
1 gallon organic apple juice (Whole Foods, fermenting in that bottle)
1 3/4 cups organic cane sugar
1/3 tsp tannin
2 1/4 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 Campden tablet, crushed

OG: 20.5 degrees Brix (SG of 1.085)
T.A.: 0.65

As I sucked some juice up with the wine thief I got a little taste... it was so good I had to give some to my wife. It's about the color of ruby red grapefruit juice. I'll be inoculating tomorrow with Safbrew T-58... it should hopefully ferment off-dry. I've chosen this yeast to produce some Belgian aromatics... this is totally an experiment, but I have high hopes

Pics and updates coming

carrotmalt · 09-23-2009, 05:13 PM

Sounds yummy. Anxious to hear how it turns out!

musty · 09-26-2009, 08:21 PM

UPDATE: I ended up inoculating with Lalvin EC-1118, following my better judgment. We'll see if a future batch would stand to benefit from Safbrew T-58 or not.

The aromas it's producing right now have me incredibly excited for this batch! There's a depth that draws the senses in... definitely from the prickly pear fruit...

dogboysdad · 10-05-2009, 01:58 AM

I thought of making some cactus pear wine after spotting them in the food terminal. The color should be amazing. They taste like watermelon to me.

musty · 10-24-2009, 10:10 PM

Quick update: it's been over a month now and the wine is still cloudy. It's interesting: in both the primary and now in the secondary there is a layer of compacted lees on the bottom with 3/4" or so of loose stuff above it. This is the same case for the original bottle of prickly pear nectar. Maybe I should rack again.

chefmike · 10-24-2009, 10:29 PM

$40 a quart?!?!!?

shuffling off to find my juicer and hit the prickly pear jungle at the local cemetary....