1st mead prickley pear advice please

[sanch]

this is the plan and recipe it is adapted from the Complete Joy of Home Brewing
3rd edition recipe.

20 lbs orange blossom honey
8 lbs prickley pear fruit (ripe as it gets and frozen)
2 tsp powdered yeast extract
2 Tbsp pectin enzyme
1 0z prise de mousse yeast
1 0z sherry yeast


The Plan:

run the fruit through my juicer to remove the needles and mechanically break down. Bring 2.5 gal of filtered water to 145 degrees add all the honey and the fruit juice and hold for 30 min to pastuerize but not set the pectin the fruit. add to fermentor containing 2.5 gal filtered water. add pectin enyzyme and yeast ferment in carboy for 3 months rack to secondary (corny keg with air lock) rack every three months for one year, bottle and age three months. and enjoy

I want it to be a sweet mead with a high alcohol content and I have enough honey and prickly pear to do this recipe about 5 times i plan on doing 1 a week slightly altering the recipe each time to do a proper experiment so in a couple years i will have my recipe down to a tee. i have been advised that i should use less honey for a dryer mead and the back sweeten it. I trust the source but dont like the idea of back sweetening it seems like a fix and not a plan.

id love to have your input will be starting the experiment on sunday

 

[TipsyDragon]

well for a sweet mead i would use sweet mead yeast make sure you pitch enough. add the fruit to the secondary not the primary to get more flavor. use campden tablets to help prevent oxidation. probably wouldn't be a bad idea to fill the carboy with dry ice fog each time you rack it and switch to a carboy cap with both plugs in once fermentation is over.

 

[MarcJWaters]

Side Note: Where are you getting your fruit from? If you live in the area, I will pay you to ship me some. If you are buying online, please post a link or PM it to me. Thanks!

 

[sanch]

i had a freind in arizona pick and freeze some for me the honey came from his bees i picked it up when i was there last. i dont think i have enough to spare right now but hit me up next fall i plan on harvesting all i can find. i tried a prickly pear ale of some sort that was awesome i plan on another batch as soon as i get this mead going.

 

[wayneb]

If I were doing this, I wouldn't pasteurize the fruit. If you're really worried about contamination, I'd suggest instead that you thaw your prickly pear and treat it with some potassium metabisulfite, allowing that to set in a covered container for a day or two before adding honey, water and then pitching your yeast. You'll end up with better color and fruit flavor that way.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

this is the plan and recipe it is adapted from the Complete Joy of Home Brewing
3rd edition recipe.

20 lbs orange blossom honey
8 lbs prickley pear fruit (ripe as it gets and frozen)
2 tsp powdered yeast extract
2 Tbsp pectin enzyme
1 0z prise de mousse yeast
1 0z sherry yeast


The Plan:

run the fruit through my juicer to remove the needles and mechanically break down. Bring 2.5 gal of filtered water to 145 degrees add all the honey and the fruit juice and hold for 30 min to pastuerize but not set the pectin the fruit. add to fermentor containing 2.5 gal filtered water. add pectin enyzyme and yeast ferment in carboy for 3 months rack to secondary (corny keg with air lock) rack every three months for one year, bottle and age three months. and enjoy

I want it to be a sweet mead with a high alcohol content and I have enough honey and prickly pear to do this recipe about 5 times i plan on doing 1 a week slightly altering the recipe each time to do a proper experiment so in a couple years i will have my recipe down to a tee. i have been advised that i should use less honey for a dryer mead and the back sweeten it. I trust the source but dont like the idea of back sweetening it seems like a fix and not a plan.

id love to have your input will be starting the experiment on sunday

I'd singe the spines off before putting them thru your juicer, a bit more work, but a lot safer & easier to clean up after. "Powdered yeast extract"? If you're using this to add nutrients, I would just use yeast nutrient/yeast energizer instead, you'll get better results. I'd step the honey additions & the nutrient additions (SNA), you can find the SNA sched in hightest's sticky.

I don't know why you're wanting to mix yeast strains, most likely 1 strain will dominate & you won't be able to tell the other strain was used at all. Are you really planning on using 2oz of yeast? Dry wine yeast comes in 5g packets & that's plenty to do anything from 1 gallon to 6 gallons. Seems like a waste of good yeast to me, I'd pick one & save the other for another batch. You might want to have a look at this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/my-prickly-pear-mead-80403/ It may give you some useful info & ideas you might not have thought of yet. Regards, GF.

 

[Teromous]

He might be using one yeast in the primary and one in the secondary? I'm not sure. I haven't done this but I've read a number of recipes where people do this. Just guessing.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I made a batch of the recipe in TCJOHB, but only used half the honey.

To me it tastes more like aloe, but then again I haven't touched it in a couple of years.

Dang, now I'm going to have to try to find them and sample more if it...

I purchased my "tuna's" from a Mexican grocery store.

 

[acyl]

Side Note: Where are you getting your fruit from? If you live in the area, I will pay you to ship me some. If you are buying online, please post a link or PM it to me. Thanks!

I live in Michigan and I can get the fruit way up here. Check out one of your local Meijer Grocery stores. That is where I purchased them. Make sure it's a Meijer in a nicer neighborhood, they usually have a larger variety of produce.