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magno · 08-24-2006, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_bird

Holy crap! How much does one of those fruits weight? Are they mostly edible (except, you know, the pricky bits) or is there a large amount of seed and other waste? That's a LOT of fruits.

The 11 oz. packs that I found had 5 to 6 fruits per pack, about 2 oz each.

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertBrew

I read it's a 1-2 year process which I could handle but I am concerned with their comments on keeping the ferment at around 60. That isn't going to happen with me for a year! Any mead'ers that can comment on temp? Is this most critical during the primary ferment and afterwards would 75-78 be a problem? If I'd short change the quality because of bad temp control I'd scrap this thought now.

I'll have to check when I get home, but I think I remember the optimal temperature being higher than 60.

In fact here they say the temp should be 70 to 75.

- magno

***Yooper*** · 08-24-2006, 10:22 PM

There is a mead recipe floating around here that requires NO aging and is a super fast ferment. Not suitable for your "regular" meads with the prickly pear fruit, but I've made this and it's awesome. It's best to be 75 degrees plus while it's fermenting, so it might be the answer for hot places. It's called Ancient Orange Mead by Joe Mattioli. I can post it later on (got to run now!) if you want, or you can do a search.

Lorena

**DesertBrew** · 04-15-2007, 12:57 AM

<Bump>

Magno, how did your prickly pear mead come out? I never got a chance to do it in '06 and there wasn't much fruit around here because of lack of winter rains. Hoping we have a good pricker spring this year.

magno · 04-16-2007, 01:20 PM

The bit that I tasted at bottling was fantastic. It is crystal clear. I will open them in June, and I will definitly post the results here. Stay tuned.

fretman124 · 07-23-2007, 11:08 PM

Magno......

Did you do your taste test in June?

I just moved into a house that has a large prickly pear cactus in the yard. It flowered last month and now I have a close to 150 fruits sloooooowly ripening. Going to take a shot at a real mead this fall when they are ripe.

Whod'a thunk there'd be prickly pear cactus in the lower Columbia River valley? we get about 6 FEET of rain here per year

homebrewer_99 · 07-23-2007, 11:18 PM

I just made a PP Mead last week or so.

I got the fruit from a Mexican grocery store. They were a nice pink color inside, but that got boiled off.

I checked the net for preperation and all I got was to put them in a food processor until they were all chopped up...skin, seeds and all.

I used Papazian's recipe also, but only used 10 lbs of honey.

**DesertBrew** · 07-24-2007, 12:18 AM

I just started picking my prickly's as well but got interuptedby a lighting show. I got to get out there and get enough to start peeling them soon (darn work!)

magno · 07-24-2007, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fretman124

Magno......

Did you do your taste test in June?

I just moved into a house that has a large prickly pear cactus in the yard. It flowered last month and now I have a close to 150 fruits sloooooowly ripening. Going to take a shot at a real mead this fall when they are ripe.

Whod'a thunk there'd be prickly pear cactus in the lower Columbia River valley? we get about 6 FEET of rain here per year

I did opened them last month. The taste is excellent but the mouthfeel is off. It is very thick. Papazian mentions this in the recipe. I think that he says to boil the fruit for two hours to make it less viscous. If that is the case (I dont have my book around) I would consider a longer boil.

I will probably attempt this recipe again some time.

- magno

mgayer · 07-24-2007, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magno

I did opened them last month. The taste is excellent but the mouthfeel is off. It is very thick. Papazian mentions this in the recipe. I think that he says to boil the fruit for two hours to make it less viscous. If that is the case (I dont have my book around) I would consider a longer boil.

I will probably attempt this recipe again some time.

- magno

Great stuff! The slickish thick mouthfeel is normal but will lessen with time, lots of time. It will not ever go completely away even with extra boiling and aging. I haven't had any PP wines or beers in a bunch of years but the ones I have had were great and packed a massive puch for a long time.

**Bobby_M** · 07-24-2007, 12:53 PM

A guy in my brewclub went to the AHA National finals with a prickly pear mead. I recently had a taste and it was amazing (I don't have much mead experience). It was more like a liquour than a wine because it had quite a bit of residual sweetness.