My prickly pear mead

[corkybstewart]

I made this back in August, and I racked it to a keg to age yesterday. I'll probably rack it again in 6 months. This glass is from the bottom of the fermenter so it's a little cloudy. I was a little cloudy after I drank it

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[So Shay]

how long do you intend to age??
I made one 24 years ago that I managed to hold on to one grolsch bottle full of and tried the following years and the flavors changed quite significantly through the years seeming to be best around years 12 to 15. I was saddened by not having aged more for a long time.

 

[corkybstewart]

I have bottles from 1996, 2006, and I'm going to bottle my 2016 batch soon. It's been in a keg for 2 years now(racked to a clean keg a year go). It's not something I drink often so it's gonna age indefinitely.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Wow! Great color. I made a PP mead in 2007. I never could find any pink tuna's though.

 

[corkybstewart]

T

Wow! Great color. I made a PP mead in 2007. I never could find any pink tuna's though.

That was it fairly fresh, the color has already faded considerably. Which is probably good, that color didn't look natural to me!
What color are your tunas? Ours are deep burgundy color.

 

[homebrewer_99]

T

That was it fairly fresh, the color has already faded considerably. Which is probably good, that color didn't look natural to me!
What color are your tunas? Ours are deep burgundy color.

Are? LOL! Were. They were ripe (I asked), but not that color at all. I got from from a couple of Mexican grocery stores over 30 miles away.

 

[JimRausch]

Opened a bottle of the PP mead I made a year ago (1/23/2018). Taste, and clarity is great, but surprisingly the red color disappeared sometime since I bottled it back in March. I did use prickly pear syrup because, hey no cactus in Maine. I ordered a bottle from amazon 2 days ago to use in a 2019 batch. I do 1gallon batches so 1, 23 oz. bottle works well.

 

[corkybstewart]

Opened a bottle of the PP mead I made a year ago (1/23/2018). Taste, and clarity is great, but surprisingly the red color disappeared sometime since I bottled it back in March. I did use prickly pear syrup because, hey no cactus in Maine. I ordered a bottle from amazon 2 days ago to use in a 2019 batch. I do 1gallon batches so 1, 23 oz. bottle works well.

All of my meads fade to champagne color within a couple of years, I have no idea why the color doesn't last.

 

[Shine0n]

I have 1.5 gal of pure juice I harvested in Aug, in Va if it makes a difference.

I've found that adding lemon or lime juice helps preserve the color fairly well.

It's been in my barn from then on and now I've gotten some Mesquite honey from Mexico I'm going to make the mead here soon, possibly this weekend.

I plan to make it a sweet mead so I'll add the lime juice in secondary and see if it helps retain the color long term and tone down the sweetness too.

FYI, I got 1.5 gal juice from 25 ish lbs of tunas. I wish I had picked them all but I have dibs on them next year so I'll have more and maybe share a pour or two.

Im sure yours tastes great and thanks for posting about the PP mead!

 

[corkybstewart]

I just moved to a new house in the NM mountains with very few prickly pears or mesquite so I'm not sure how I'll do my mead next year. I can probably just go south to the flatlands and harvest plenty, I'll just have to wait and see.