Prickly pear fruit (tuna) ale

[dteague]

I would like some input on people who have tried a prickly pear beer before. Should I add more fresh prickly pear fruit to the secondary or call it good from the amount I've added to the end of the flame out?

 

[Just-a-sip]

having just tried my first prickly pear ale with lunch today i would like to see how this turned out and the recipe

 

[ucwayne]

I recently brewed a Prickly Pear wheat. It turned out pretty good, except that it is really bitter after conditioning. I think that when I cooked the pears down I should have added more sugar.

I also see that youare using the green ones too. I was told that green ones weren't ripe yet, to only use the purple ones. Your thoughts?

 

[dteague]

Yeah. I agree about using the green ones. It seems that mine didn't turn out to have the correct amount of sweetness to it. I added 2 cups of sugar to the prickly pear fruit to add to the fruit itself but it still lacked the fruity sweet prickly pear flavor that I tried to replicate from the shiner version.

 

[TNGabe]

Yeah. I agree about using the green ones. It seems that mine didn't turn out to have the correct amount of sweetness to it. I added 2 cups of sugar to the prickly pear fruit to add to the fruit itself but it still lacked the fruity sweet prickly pear flavor that I tried to replicate from the shiner version.

Fermented fruit isn't sweet. Adding sugar won't sweeten beer either, it just boosts the abc. I'd guess the Shiner beer is pasteurized after the juice is added to prevent fermentation.

 

[Zuljin]

I've used them in lemonade. The more purple the better. I've a wheat wine in secondary which I used a plastic shopping bag full. There's so much other stuff in the brew though that I can't say I taste the tunas.

How did you remove the glochids? I roll them in an old t-shirt until no more come off. Then, wearing heavy leather gloves, I slice them in half and spoon the insides away from the skin.

To remove the seeds, just so I don't have to deal with them being in the beverage, I smash the pulp through a wire basket type strainer and help it along with a little water from the sink sprayer. Those seeds are like little rocks.

 

[dteague]

The T shirt idea is good. The ones I purchased from the store had them removed already and I used the same technique by straining them to avoid seeds in the pulp. Next time I will definitely be adding the purple ones and possibly a more condensed version to the secondary to get a little more flavor