Prickly Pear Braggot

[magno]

My girlfriend and I are planning a prickly pear braggot. We harvested 9lbs prickly pear fruit yesterday from the Texas hill country. Last night we reduced that to 5 cups of juice at 1.034, which we held at around 170* for 20 minutes then transferred to a sanitized mason jar. This is the gravity sample, and a photo of the fruit in the bag.

The plan is to brew up a batch of braggot this week, ferment it most of the way out, then add the juice. Proposed 5 gallon recipe follows:

6.25lbs Marris Otter (mash high - around 158*)
4.5lbs local honey (add towards end of boil)
5cups prickly pear juice (add after primary fermentation has slowed)

0.5oz Willamette hops (whole) at 50 min
0.5oz Willamette hops at flame out

1 pack Windsor yeast

Any recipe suggestions would be appreciated... Any thoughts on pectic enzyme or some crystal malt? I've never made a braggot before, but I have made a prickly pear mead. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/prickly-pear-mead.12624/

 

[AkTom]

How did this turn out?

 

[magno]

It was a bit fruity for my taste, but my girlfriend and guests liked it quite a bit. We're talking about doing it again, maybe for a friend's wedding celebration if the timing works out... long story, but the wedding happened already - the celebration will happen post-covid.

The color was much darker than the mead that I made a few years back, and the fruit flavor seemed to be more pronounced too. The keg lasted several months and the fruit flavor definitely mellowed with time. It seemed to hit its peak around 2 months in the keg.

Would brew again!