Prickly Pear Braggot - Comments please

Totally stepping outside of my comfort zone on this one. Looking to leave in secondary for about 9 months. Then keg or keg+bottle and let it rest for at least a year until it's not so hot. Hoping for something very deceptive!

I have 14 C of prickly pear juice in my freezer, to use some or all.

I've been in primary since 12/12/2010. It's ready to move to secondary. My initial thoughts are two choices: 1) move it to secondary until next 12/2011, then keg it with the fruit and bottle with champagne corks; 2) move it to secondary with the x cups of prickly pear juice and some pectin enzyme. Should I re-pitch?

Prickly Pear Braggot
Brew Type: Partial
Mash Date: 12/12/2010
Style: Braggot
Brewer: Mark
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Equipment: My Equipment
Actual Efficiency: 20.3 %

Taste Rating (50 possible points):
Dry w/ slight sweet astringency, IIPA hop style

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 19.0 %
3.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 16.7 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.8 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.4 %
2.00 oz Northern Brewer [9.80%] (60 min) Hops 65.2 IBU
1.50 oz Brewer's Gold [5.90%] (45 min) Hops 27.0 IBU
1.50 oz Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings [2.50%] (30 min) Hops 3.2 IBU
1.00 oz Styrian Goldings [2.00%] (5 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
6.00 oz Select Spalt [3.50%] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops - in keg or at end of secondary

5.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Fermax) (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
64.00 oz Prickly Pear Juice (Bottling 12.0 weeks) Misc ?????????
12.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 57.1 %
2 Pkgs Champagne Yeast (White Labs #WLP715) Yeast-Champagne

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.144 SG (1.060-1.130 SG)
Measured Original Gravity: 1.125 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.033 SG (1.004-1.025 SG)
Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Color: 8.4 SRM (3.0-16.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 101.6 IBU (0.0-50.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 6.5 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 14.8 % (6.5-14.0 %)
Actual Alcohol by Volume: 12.1 %
Actual Calories: 607 cal/pint


Mash Profile Name: My Mash Mash Tun Weight: 0.00 lb
Mash Grain Weight: lb
Mash PH: pH
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 6.32 gal
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE

Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2)
Carbonation Volumes: 2.4 (1.8-2.8 vols)
Estimated Pressure: 21.6 PSI
Kegging Temperature: 60.0 F
Pressure Used: -
Age for: 4.0 Weeks
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F


Notes
Mini-mash grains in cooler w/ 2.5 gallons H2O @ 163, shooting for 158 down to 146, for 1 hour.
Sparge w/ 0.5 gallon H2O at 180, rinsing 2x from spigot.
Add mash tun to kettle w/ small amount of boiling H2O.
60 minute boil (~20% loss).
Yeast nutrient at 15 minutes remaining.
4# DME + 12# honey @ flameout.
Honey from Singh (Dec 10th) at flameout, final draw of 2010.
Chill, aerate, pitch (2 vials)
Dry hop in secondary, or tertiary.
Kegged w/ juice???
Bottle after keg condition.

Mine has been in secondary for about 6 months now. I used the juice from 2 pounds of prickly pear. The juice was not very sweet, didn't see much in the way of fermentation when I added it.

I'd add 1/2 of your juice to the secondary, and taste test it in december, possibly add more juice then.

t

Obviously its been a while since you brewed this, but how did it come out? How did it stand next the Widmer brothers Prickly Pear Braggot?

A recap: primary and secondary were all good; all fruit was added to secondary with pectin enzyme. Thieved a pint to share around during a session.

Note: quite dry as expected, appropriately hopped with respect to taste and aroma, not the least bit cloying, dried candied fruits, toasted/toffee, good body in the mouth.

Force kegged and allowed it to condition for months. The batch went bad inside the keg. I was quite surprised because my cleanliness is impeccable, except in this case. I use PBW and StarSan. Don't know where it occurred.

One day I will take another shot at this.

Widmer Bros was very cloying and I didn't like it, although it was the inspiration for the futile attempt. I did find an 80s Arizona State Fair article that included this beer as an Award Winner. Not much info for posterity, and the recipe listed: malt extract, yeast, ppear juice. No specifics.