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Prickly pear beer


gregmaka

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Hi,i have a prickly pear tree in the back yard that hold heeps of prickly pears annually,and i do eat them.My family don't want to try them,so many go to waste as eating too many is not too good for your bowls.

I have thought of trying to make a brew once a year,as they are a very sweet fruit in itself. I have never tried a prickly pear beer as i don't want it to turn me off making a brew.I'm not expecting the best of results,but just want to give it a go and see if it would improve with time.

I haven't come up with much useful information on the net,so i thought i would ask you lot.Mainly what sugars or honey,yeast would be appropriate would like to keep it as simple as possible,as i do not have temperature controlling,except for heat bands.

Any help on a simple recipe would be much appreciated.Ten liters would be fine.

 

PS the prickly pears that i have are not the real blood red ones they are sort of orange in colour. Nopales or Nopalitos i believe they are.

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I remember an old Italian bloke making something out of them, but can't remember what.

Might be worth asking around if there is an Italian club near you. The one in our town have sausage making days open to everyone.

 

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I made a prickly pear wine a couple of years ago using the red "fruit"

 

It was a pretty random experiment so I didn't really keep track of the recipe but firstly you have to handle these things with care - the fine hairs are a nasty skin irritant so use gloves to handle them and remove the fine hairs as a first step by singeing then over a gas burner.

 

Then I just cut them in half and added them to a sugar solution and pitched yeast into it.

 

After fermentation, I left it for a month or so on the lees and it ended up tasting a bit like a dry sherry.

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Thanks guys,i know the Italiano are good at making wine,and wonder why they did not do anything in regards to pickly pears [figarini] as it has been a survival plant fof centurays.MY Fathers brothers are all in there 90s and still kicking and swear by prickly pears and artichoke.They never mentioned to me about making beer with prickly pears.

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Hi Greg,

 

I live in Canada and have no experience with prickly pear, but I do have some experience with making fruit beers. I looked up prickly pears and it seems they are not that acidic, and that their main organic acid is citric acid; these are both good things as far as adding them to beer is concerned; they also have a decent amount of sugar. The main negatives are that they contain a lot of pectin, which could result in cloudy beer, and that they have a high level of Vitamin C. Vitamin C can taste tart, so maybe don't use too much fruit. If they taste tart when you bite into them, only use 300gm of fruit your first time around; if they don't taste tart, consider using 500gm. But taste can be deceiving. In raw fruit the sugar can mask tartness, but remember that after fermentation the sugar will be gone and all you will have left is the tartness. It is better to use too little fruit than too much. If you use too little you will still have a drinkable beer and can add more next time. If you use too much you will ruin your beer.

 

I would suggest:

 

1.7kg APA kit

500gm wheat DME

500gm light DME

Nottingham yeast (rehydrated)

23L

300-500gm frozen fruit added on day 3

 

Fermented at 16-18C

 

Wait with adding your fruit until day three of fermentation. Cut it up in small chunks, or even mash it if that is easy to do (not sure how firm they are), spray them with Starsan, put them in ziplock bag and freeze them; freezing ruptures the cell walls and releases the juice. On day three of fermentation you can remove the fruit from the freezer (no need to thaw) and tie it in a clean, new mesh bag with a bunch of marbles, then dunk the bag in Starsan, and toss in your FV. Don't be shy with the marbles; if you don't put enough in the bag will float and that could lead to mould growing on top.

 

I would suggest tasting a sample once the fruit has been in there about five days, to see how the flavour is coming along. You might want to remove the fruit at that point, or recheck in a couple of days. I probably would not leave the fruit in longer than a week. Depending on how it tastes, you could add some dry hops at this stage, something fruity that would complement the prickly pear. Consider Falconer's Flight, Citra, Cascades, or Nelson Sauvin, but it is entirely up to you.

 

Wait at least 10-14 days before bottling. Make sure your hydrometer reading is stable.

 

Good luck and cheers. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Christina.

 

* Nottingham throws a lot of fruity esters if feremented above 20C, so be sure to keep it below that. Nottingham is probably the #1 yeast used by cider-makers.

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Thanks Christina,that sounds like a nice and simple recepe,as i have said no real expectations,and also sounds fair not to put in too many prickly pears.We are at the end of our summer here,hopfully the temperatures will drop a little in 2 weeks.I will let you know how it goes down the track.

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  • 1 year later...
On 3/26/2017 at 5:45 AM, gregmaka said:

Thanks Christina,that sounds like a nice and simple recepe,as i have said no real expectations,and also sounds fair not to put in too many prickly pears.We are at the end of our summer here,hopfully the temperatures will drop a little in 2 weeks.I will let you know how it goes down the track.

Well,it has been a while,and i did try out brewing any beer with prickly pears as yet.

I have one liter of crushed prickly pear juice in the fridge [i skinned the skin off the prickly pears and seperated the seeds from the juice] it smells and taests great.

I also have cascade hops growing in the garden,and im not sure when is the best time to pick them or how to store them.

I would like to brew somthing with these two fruits this year as i don't want hops and juice going to waiste.

I will try to upload some pix.

P3140201.JPG

DSC_0447.JPG

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If you live long enough, let us know how it taste.

"Tiswin" is a fermented beverage made by the Papago Indians of northern Mexico and southern Arizona from the pulp of saguaro cactus fruit. A syrup is made from the fruit pulp by slowly cooking one part water to two parts pulp for 1 to 2 hours. The resulting syrup is then used to make the tiswin. If you can not obtain saguaro cactus fruit pulp syrup (and who can?), prickly pear cactus fruit can be used as an alternative (if you can even get that).

Ingredients:

* 8 quarts saguaro cactus fruit pulp (or prickly pear cactus fruit pulp)
* 4 quarts water
* yeast

Instructions:

1. Mix the fruit pulp and water and bring it to a boil.

2. Reduce the heat and slowly cook the mixture for 1-2 hours.

3. Allow the mixture to cool enough to strain it then return it to a slow boil for another hour.

4. Cool the mixture to 70ºF then strain it into a fermenter and pitch the yeast.
5. Allow the beer to ferment completely then bottle and condition before drinking.

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Hi Gregmaka. Those are beautiful pictures. 👍 I think your beer has a good chance of turning out awesome! Keep us posted. 

A friend of mine has hops growing in his garden and I want to try making a small batch of beer with them next autumn. I will be interested to hear your experience using fresh hops.

Due to their high pectin level, I would not recommend heating the prickly pear juice. You may wish to treat the juice with pectic enzyme for 24 hours before use.  Just follow the directions on the package. Wait with adding the juice to the fermenter until fermentation starts to slow. That way your yeast will be well established, and there is some alcohol present to inhibit bacteria and wild yeast.

If you aren't ready to use the juice just yet, you can freeze it....I would treat it with the pectic enzyme before freezing.

Cheers,

Christina.

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Thanks Christina, the hops are on there 3rd year now, and am glad the plant produced a few, as for the prickly pears they seem to go ripe all of a sudden and i could never keep up eating them. I eat about 10 a day,and in the meantime i decided to skin and seed about 50 to make some juice,to try and add it to a can of pale ale or something else. I will take your advice and freeze it for now. I want to use my hops but have no idea when it will be ready to use and how much to put in my  fermenter, and which can i could buy that would go good with my cascade hops. I hope to buy a few more variaties of hops rhizomes in July, August.

PS I have not tried a stubbie or bottle of prickly pear bear as yet.

DSC_0575.JPG

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2 hours ago, gregmaka said:

which can i could buy that would go good with my cascade hops

Hi Gregmaka

I have done the following cans with home grown Cascade:

  • Australian Pale Ale
  • Mexican Cerveza
  • Morgans Draught

I think it is a good all-round hop that would go fine with just about any can.

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