I had a bottle of Shiners prickly pear and decided I’d like to brew my own. The problem is the price of the puree; a 2.2 lb tub is about $36 plus shipping. At that price, I can probably buy it for less than the price for the ingredients to brew it.
Has anyone tried syrup or is there an extract available at a reasonable price?
I’d imagine the syrup is a lot of sugar and very little actual prickly pear. Once the sugar ferments out you’re left with not much fruit flavor.
Prickly pear is expensive because it’s hard to harvest and there are few commercial growing operations. $36 really isn’t that bad of pricing IMO.
You might have luck looking around your local health food stores. Prickly pear is one of those foods people claim has magic health effects so you might find whole or processed prickly pear and at least cut out the shipping costs.
You’re right about the processing difficulty; I’m frugal and it makes the finished product about the same as buying the Shiners off the shelf. I was hoping for a less expensive alternative.
Thanks
+1. If it were a puree instead of a syrup it might be a good purchase, but ‘syrup’ screams out lots of added sugar to me.
Pick it yourself. Plenty around in the fall.
Unfortunately it doesn’t grow in Indiana.
it could. It’s actually perfectly happy in cold climates and does okay in places as far north as Maine.
I think of prickly pear as one of those few regional things that have stayed that way. I like it. you could work out a trade with a southwestern homebrewer. swap some good sour Indiana cherries maybe for some nice prickly pears. just the cost of shipping… and the cherries of course.
It’s all over the place in the Indiana Sand Dunes.
I didn’t know that. OTOH I haven’t been up to the Dunes since I was a kid. I could see a prickly pear saison being nice. Good info.