crackhead7
Well-Known Member
I have been hit with a strong interest in brewing a Prickly Pear mead as written in the Home brewers companion, Does anyone know where one might be able to find some cactus fruits?
Prickly Pears??
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home_bru
New Member
He does make that mead sound pretty awesome.
In CA and the southwest many people grow them in their yards, but I assume that is not possible with the Cleveland climate. You may have to go to a specialty market (a Latin market possibly). They are not in season until the fall though so it might be best to wait.
I'm about to get this strawberry mead going (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/looking-strawberry-mead-recipe-87689/) since strawberries are in season, but you'll have to let me know how the prickly pear mead turns out. It's defiantly on my to-do list.
In CA and the southwest many people grow them in their yards, but I assume that is not possible with the Cleveland climate. You may have to go to a specialty market (a Latin market possibly). They are not in season until the fall though so it might be best to wait.
I'm about to get this strawberry mead going (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/looking-strawberry-mead-recipe-87689/) since strawberries are in season, but you'll have to let me know how the prickly pear mead turns out. It's defiantly on my to-do list.
If you drive down to Jungle Jim's, I would bet dollars to donuts you could find them there when they're in season (if there is a prickly pear season).
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crackhead7
Well-Known Member
Jungle Jims hmmm thats quite a ways but not out of the question, I sent the a e-mail asking if and when they might have them. I will def. look for the mexican grocery in the area. we do have a big produce market, maybe one of the vendors might know. I thinking about strawberry untill I can get this worked out. Will frozen work as well as fresh, fresh might be awfully expensive. I've never attempted a mead before and I am brand new to brewing in general. I want to brew a sweet mead but proabbly in the middle of the (Dry ---- (here) -- Sweet) range. I know its based on sugar amount, does anyone have some basic suggestions? is thier a direct purportion of lbs of honey to volume? seems dificult to weigh!
I hope you find some! I live in the southwest and have a deep love of the prickly pear. Eating some toast with prickly pear jam on it right now in fact.
+1 to a few of the above comments, by the way - Latin markets will often have prickly pear, try asking them for 'nopales'.
+1 to a few of the above comments, by the way - Latin markets will often have prickly pear, try asking them for 'nopales'.
jblaschke
Well-Known Member
"Nopales" or "nopalitos" are actually the flat green pads. They have a vaguely green bean type of flavor and are a bit slimy inside. I dice them up and add them to my salsa. Good stuff.
The prickly pear fruit (technically known as tunas) bud along the edges of the pads and turn bright-to-dark red when ripe, depending on the local population. Sweetness and acidity vary from region to region, as does strength of flavor. I've tried them off and on and they can be lemon sour, syrupy sweet or mild. The flavor is vaguely melonish, familiar yet hard to place. Others have compared it to dragonfruit. They grow all over the place here and will start ripening at the end of the month, so I plan on doing some harvesting.
Mexican groceries will sometimes have them. The regular supermarkets will have them around here sometime, but they're always green. I don't understand that, since the fruit won't ripen once it's picked. If you get them from the store, they ought to already have the spines removed--the fruit have tiny, hairlike spines in tufts here and there, that are awful if you get them stuck in your skin. I recommend gloves when handling. Some singe them off with an open flame, as the spines burn easily.
I always freeze my pears, as it liberates the juice and makes preparation (at least for me) easier, and aids in liberating the juice by rupturing cell walls. Wearing leather gloves, I'll chop the ends off then slice the skin down the middle and peel it off, placing the seedy pulp inside off in a bowl or somesuch. They are VERY seedy. The juice is deep maroon and will stain. I've heard others blanch the fruit for removal of the skins, but as the juice gets everywhere even when frozen, I can't imagine how sloppy messing with thawed fruit would be.
It's my understanding that the fruit need to be simmered for 30 minutes before adding to the fermentation vessel, otherwise it will foam up like the apocalypse. Not wishing to test this theory, I always simmer. Some say to boil, but as that would set the fruit pectin, I keep the temps below boiling. I mash the fruit in the pot to extract as much juice as I can, then strain it all and add to the secondary fermenter. Disappointingly, what starts out as an incredibly rich burgundy-maroon color steadily fades during aging until it's merely a soft pink blush in the mead. The flavor's delicate and hard to place--I was greatly amused by giving folks a taste and their inability to guess what fruit they were tasting.
For a six-gallon batch of sweet mead a few years back, I used 18 pounds of clover honey and 15+ pounds of prickly pears. At the time I pitched Pasteur champagne yeast because I didn't know there were better choices. I'm going to up the ratio of fruit per gallon this time around, pick a different yeast more suited to melomels, and ease back on the amount of honey, back sweetening if necessary. That first attempt was too sweet (yes, even with the Pasteur), and would've benefited from a more generous addition of tannins. I blogged about the process:
http://jlbgibberish.blogspot.com/2006/07/prickly-mead.html
http://jlbgibberish.blogspot.com/2007/01/racking-mead-finally.html
http://jlbgibberish.blogspot.com/2007/06/prickly-mead.html
The prickly pear fruit (technically known as tunas) bud along the edges of the pads and turn bright-to-dark red when ripe, depending on the local population. Sweetness and acidity vary from region to region, as does strength of flavor. I've tried them off and on and they can be lemon sour, syrupy sweet or mild. The flavor is vaguely melonish, familiar yet hard to place. Others have compared it to dragonfruit. They grow all over the place here and will start ripening at the end of the month, so I plan on doing some harvesting.
Mexican groceries will sometimes have them. The regular supermarkets will have them around here sometime, but they're always green. I don't understand that, since the fruit won't ripen once it's picked. If you get them from the store, they ought to already have the spines removed--the fruit have tiny, hairlike spines in tufts here and there, that are awful if you get them stuck in your skin. I recommend gloves when handling. Some singe them off with an open flame, as the spines burn easily.
I always freeze my pears, as it liberates the juice and makes preparation (at least for me) easier, and aids in liberating the juice by rupturing cell walls. Wearing leather gloves, I'll chop the ends off then slice the skin down the middle and peel it off, placing the seedy pulp inside off in a bowl or somesuch. They are VERY seedy. The juice is deep maroon and will stain. I've heard others blanch the fruit for removal of the skins, but as the juice gets everywhere even when frozen, I can't imagine how sloppy messing with thawed fruit would be.
It's my understanding that the fruit need to be simmered for 30 minutes before adding to the fermentation vessel, otherwise it will foam up like the apocalypse. Not wishing to test this theory, I always simmer. Some say to boil, but as that would set the fruit pectin, I keep the temps below boiling. I mash the fruit in the pot to extract as much juice as I can, then strain it all and add to the secondary fermenter. Disappointingly, what starts out as an incredibly rich burgundy-maroon color steadily fades during aging until it's merely a soft pink blush in the mead. The flavor's delicate and hard to place--I was greatly amused by giving folks a taste and their inability to guess what fruit they were tasting.
For a six-gallon batch of sweet mead a few years back, I used 18 pounds of clover honey and 15+ pounds of prickly pears. At the time I pitched Pasteur champagne yeast because I didn't know there were better choices. I'm going to up the ratio of fruit per gallon this time around, pick a different yeast more suited to melomels, and ease back on the amount of honey, back sweetening if necessary. That first attempt was too sweet (yes, even with the Pasteur), and would've benefited from a more generous addition of tannins. I blogged about the process:
http://jlbgibberish.blogspot.com/2006/07/prickly-mead.html
http://jlbgibberish.blogspot.com/2007/01/racking-mead-finally.html
http://jlbgibberish.blogspot.com/2007/06/prickly-mead.html
MeadWitch
Well-Known Member
I saw video on peeling prickly pear fruit that looked pretty easy. You hold the fruit with tongs and cut off both ends, then make a slit thru the skin from top to bottom. Insert a fillet knife or other thin bladed knife into the slit and run it around the fruit, scooping out the inside. Looked easy enough, I guess I will find out for sure when the neighbors fruit gets ripe.
Where did you get the prickly pear jam?
jblaschke
Well-Known Member
Meadwitch, that's pretty much what I do. Only I use leather gloves instead of tongs, and I freeze them first because the juice really does go everywhere with fully ripe fruit. I've found blanching helps, or at least running hot water over the frozen fruit, to loosen the skin.
MeadWitch
Well-Known Member
So you freeze them whole and then peel them frozen or just slightly thawed? What a great idea! Do you fire off the stingers or peel them with them on? It sounds like you leave them on (leather gloves).
My neighbor across the street has them on her cactus and never does a thing with them, they just drop to the ground. So this year I am gonna see if I can snag them. She probably won't care but there is no harm in asking.
The problem you had with the change in colour, seems to be the same thing I had with my hibiscus mead. It turned from a rosy rose to a golden yellow from oxidation. Perhaps to much C02 or too much head space in my carboy. Still tastes great but the colour belies the true favor.
My neighbor across the street has them on her cactus and never does a thing with them, they just drop to the ground. So this year I am gonna see if I can snag them. She probably won't care but there is no harm in asking.
The problem you had with the change in colour, seems to be the same thing I had with my hibiscus mead. It turned from a rosy rose to a golden yellow from oxidation. Perhaps to much C02 or too much head space in my carboy. Still tastes great but the colour belies the true favor.
MeadWitch
Well-Known Member
jblaschke,
If you were to make it again, what yeast would you use?
If you were to make it again, what yeast would you use?
jblaschke
Well-Known Member
Meadwitch, slightly thawed works best. Solidly frozen from the deep freeze results in brittle skin that breaks rather than peels. I actually peeled a few pounds tonight, picked and frozen last year. Most of them are *almost* ripe, in that the seeds are fully ripe and juicy but the flesh around them is still green and dry. Fully ripe fruit has rich maroon flesh around the seed. Last year was terrible for prickly pear fruit--the drought had even the cactus withering, so I picked what I could find, when I could find it.
You're correct in that I don't singe the quills off. I ought to, but I don't quite trust I'd get them all. There's a bunch of fat fruit on all the cactus around here, and I plan on harvesting a bunch at the end of the month when it ripens. I might just get a skewer and singe them off then, before freezing. It'd certainly be easier to do it all at once.
Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't use Pasteur again. I'm using Narbonne (Lalvin 71B-1122) in a plum wine I have in the secondary, and am trying out Bourgovin (Lalvin RC212) in a mead that will get a dose of plums once it goes into the secondary as well. Schramm's book recommends those for melomels with dark fruit, but prickly pear's a lot lighter and more delicate than my Methley and Santa Rosa plums. I have a packet of Cotes des Blancs (Red Star 3267) in the fridge I plan on using with the prickly pear. Never tried that yeast before--supposedly a slow fermenter that needs extra nutrients, but one that accents the fruit aromas. That slower fermentation might be perfect for the prickly pear, and the final alcohol--12-15 percent--is pretty much what I'm shooting for, so I can hit a demi-sweet wine without having to backsweeten. I'm right now inclined to split the fruit in both primary and secondary, with last year's prickly pears in the primary, which should help with the Cotes des Blancs' nutrient requirements, and then this year's in the secondary. I will make sure to add enough tannins this year--I was afraid of overdoing it my previous attempt, and that was the biggest shortcoming of an otherwise successful melomel.
You're correct in that I don't singe the quills off. I ought to, but I don't quite trust I'd get them all. There's a bunch of fat fruit on all the cactus around here, and I plan on harvesting a bunch at the end of the month when it ripens. I might just get a skewer and singe them off then, before freezing. It'd certainly be easier to do it all at once.
Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't use Pasteur again. I'm using Narbonne (Lalvin 71B-1122) in a plum wine I have in the secondary, and am trying out Bourgovin (Lalvin RC212) in a mead that will get a dose of plums once it goes into the secondary as well. Schramm's book recommends those for melomels with dark fruit, but prickly pear's a lot lighter and more delicate than my Methley and Santa Rosa plums. I have a packet of Cotes des Blancs (Red Star 3267) in the fridge I plan on using with the prickly pear. Never tried that yeast before--supposedly a slow fermenter that needs extra nutrients, but one that accents the fruit aromas. That slower fermentation might be perfect for the prickly pear, and the final alcohol--12-15 percent--is pretty much what I'm shooting for, so I can hit a demi-sweet wine without having to backsweeten. I'm right now inclined to split the fruit in both primary and secondary, with last year's prickly pears in the primary, which should help with the Cotes des Blancs' nutrient requirements, and then this year's in the secondary. I will make sure to add enough tannins this year--I was afraid of overdoing it my previous attempt, and that was the biggest shortcoming of an otherwise successful melomel.
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crackhead7
Well-Known Member
bump lost this thread, had some real life things preventing me from spend more time with this. I did make a strawberry mead its in bottles now. Think I ask some friends in the SW to try to harvest and mail me some. When do they come into season in the fall?
jblaschke
Well-Known Member
Harvest depends entirely on the particular species of prickly pear and climate. I've seen some that ripen and drop beginning in early August, but this year I harvested quite a few late-season tunas in mid-November before the weather turned cold. September is generally regarded as the most productive month, but YMMV.
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crackhead7
Well-Known Member
I friends that live in Conroe, TX and phoenix, Az how much work do you think it would be to harvest enough for a batch of Mead?
user 54565
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During prime season (late summer), they can be acquired in Phoenix from "Food City" for around $0.69 - $1 a pound, give or take. These have the spines (glochids) burned off for you, which makes life a whole heck of a lot easier. I would bet there are cheaper places for ready-to-use tunas, as that is a local grocery chain.
I actually looked around on craigslist and a very nice lady agreed to bring me 15 gallons (approaching 60 pounds) for $15, if I remember correctly. Granted, they weren't all quite ripe, had all of the thorns still on there, and some were tuna roja - some were tuna verde. But they worked plenty well for what I wanted them for (especially after 2 or 3 days waiting in the garage).
I actually looked around on craigslist and a very nice lady agreed to bring me 15 gallons (approaching 60 pounds) for $15, if I remember correctly. Granted, they weren't all quite ripe, had all of the thorns still on there, and some were tuna roja - some were tuna verde. But they worked plenty well for what I wanted them for (especially after 2 or 3 days waiting in the garage).
2ndGenBrewer
Well-Known Member
I just bottled my batch 4 months ago and at that time (still very young) it already tasted fantastic. I used the dark violet prickly pears (did a trade with another forum user), about 4 lbs for a two gallon batch, I froze them, skinned them, chopped them into small pieces and simmered for 30-45 minutes. After that I strained the fruit out, added nutrient and energizer, and pitched Montrachet once it cooled. I still have another 4 lbs and am looking forward to using them before they get freezer brun (is it's not already too late). I would recommend anyone try this at least once. It has been so far the best tasting early mead I've ever made.
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Glad to hear that they worked out well for you. I have a braggot that I am about to bottle that I used pears from the same batch. I hope mine turns out as nicely as well. I also still have about 10 lbs left in the freezer to use. Just haven't figured out for what and when yet. I'll probably do a mead like the Papzian book suggests as well.
I harvested most of mine in July August and September here I believe.
GTG
Beebe
Active Member
I guess you can get the prickly pears at different times! When I made my 5 gal batch last year I picked them up at the local food store and it was early spring! Just bottled it all up a few weeks ago. 
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I guess you can get the prickly pears at different times! When I made my 5 gal batch last year I picked them up at the local food store and it was early spring! Just bottled it all up a few weeks ago.
If I were to guess, they were probably from Central or South America?
GTG
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crackhead7
Well-Known Member
They are next to impossibe to find in Cleveland, I going to have to find someone to help me out this year by shipping me some! I jealous of those of you that have the easy access.
2ndGenBrewer
Well-Known Member
GTG may be willing to help. He does fair trades... I might want to hit him up again my self. Lol. I still have 4 lbs left!
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crackhead7
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that would be wonderful, maybe we can discuss the details via PM or Email.
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