First Prickly Pear Mead

I followed the Papazian recipie but only used 15# honey as this is going to sparkle. After the cooking of those gorgeous cactus fruits, the beautiful crimson turned to yellow-brown. In the fermentor it looked just like sewage - my wife and I both just shook our heads, "I'm not drinking that."

At four weeks it has cleared and has a brilliant red-orange color. Just as Papazian said; "like a beaughtiful sunset."

I hope the idea of adding 16oz of rose water to 5gl was a good idea - especially since I don't know what prickly pear mead without it tastes like.

I made a 1 gal batch of that too.. mine is a reddish copper color and crystal clear. Its been in the fermentor jug for probably 6 months now.. I cant wait to see what it tastes like.