Making prickly pear juice for mead

talenos · 10-07-2010, 05:24 PM

So, I tried out the idea from the Joy of Homebrewing and made a 5 gallon batch of mesquite honey mead about a year ago.

I wanted to add prickly pear juice, but couldn't find any for the longest time. Finally got my hands on some a few weeks back and since I never had worked with prickly pears before, I thought I'd take some videos of the process.

Here's the result, in case anyone is interested in the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_6MXCNDIVI

**GTG** · 10-07-2010, 05:32 PM

After the chopping, blendering and boiling process what did it taste like?

GTG

talenos · 10-08-2010, 08:30 AM

Well, it was my first time using them, so I have to go by my first impressions. It tasted a little melony to me. Milder then I expected I guess. Seems like a good compliment to hte mead. Boiling didn't really seem to effect the flavor at all.

A prickly pear margarita seems like it would taste pretty good.

chs9 · 10-09-2010, 06:53 PM

mmmmmmmmmmm this sounds good. I'm thinking about making a local honey - prickly pear - agave mead, but I don't have the first idea of where to start. I know I can get local prickly pear syrup, and definitely imported (MAYBE local, if I'm lucky) agave syrup. Any suggestions?

fjones71 · 12-01-2011, 06:43 PM

I made some Prickly Pear Mead last year. I am now at the point of actually drinking it. The stuff is great! So great in fact that I decide to make some more. I picked my own Prickly Pears from a road in Somis, California. I learned a great deal about how to select the right Prickly Pears and how to extract the best parts of the Prickly Pears, from the best Prickly Pears. This year I am making a 9-gallon batch using 15lbs of Prickly Pear prime pulp along with 36 pounds of honey.