Sharkman20
Well-Known Member
Earlier this year I fermented out two batches of mead, one using raspberry honey and 71B-1122 which came out to 13.5% ABV, and another using orange blossom honey and D47 which came out to 11.2% ABV. The orange blossom mead D47 batch crapped out early at 1.036 and attempts to restart it have failed, even using some of the yeast cake from the 71B-1122 batch. So that one is what it is.
Anyway, I came upon a mexican market with a boatload of red prickly pear cactus fruits so I bought a bunch. I threw the whole fruits in a bucket of starsan for a good 20 minutes or so and then cut the ends off and skinned the fruit with sanitized equipment and diced into pieces small enough to fit through a carboy funnel, as I no longer have a bucket for secondaries.
I have just over 9lbs of diced up fruit that I've frozen in vacuum seal bags for a week or so which I'll dump into a carboy and I'm going to rack one of my meads on top. Now I know most everyone boils and cooks prickly pear fruits and adds pectic enzyme, but I don't really see much point in doing that. I'd much rather add fresh fruit to my mead, and I've heard that a lot of the color fades over time with batches that have used the cooking method. I kinda want to retain that glowing magenta color.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Any reasons I may not have found as to why it would be a bad idea to add the raw fruit directly to the mead, if it's not a sanitation issue. The fruit is pretty much as sanitized as it could get, and at 13.5% already, I'm not too worried about my mead. Then again, the sweeter mead that finished high may compliment the flavor a bit more.
Anyway, I came upon a mexican market with a boatload of red prickly pear cactus fruits so I bought a bunch. I threw the whole fruits in a bucket of starsan for a good 20 minutes or so and then cut the ends off and skinned the fruit with sanitized equipment and diced into pieces small enough to fit through a carboy funnel, as I no longer have a bucket for secondaries.
I have just over 9lbs of diced up fruit that I've frozen in vacuum seal bags for a week or so which I'll dump into a carboy and I'm going to rack one of my meads on top. Now I know most everyone boils and cooks prickly pear fruits and adds pectic enzyme, but I don't really see much point in doing that. I'd much rather add fresh fruit to my mead, and I've heard that a lot of the color fades over time with batches that have used the cooking method. I kinda want to retain that glowing magenta color.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Any reasons I may not have found as to why it would be a bad idea to add the raw fruit directly to the mead, if it's not a sanitation issue. The fruit is pretty much as sanitized as it could get, and at 13.5% already, I'm not too worried about my mead. Then again, the sweeter mead that finished high may compliment the flavor a bit more.