Just harvested about 100 prickly pears yesterday. Processed them today, flamed off the glochids, peeled and pureed, strained the seeds out. I got about 1 gallon of juice. I will add some to the boil and some in secondary. I tried a little in my agave wheat tonight and love it. I decided to brew my agave wheat substituting local cactus honey for the agave nectar and adding the prickly pears. I will brew next week. Froze the juice tonight.
+1. I’d add it to secondary and rack on top of the puree. The turbulence of primary fermentation can drive off more of the fruit character with the CO2 than in a gentler secondary fermentation. I look forward to hearing how it comes out. Sounds really interesting in a saison.
This sounds interesting. How is the taste when used in a beer? The one time I tried prickly pear fruits (tuna) I thought it tasted like cotton candy/bubble gum. Plus, it had a lot of gelatin consistency. I would like to attempt a mead with them.