Prickly Pear Wine

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Jericurl

The Ferminator
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Step 1: Convince Manthing to drive around in in the country, looking for purple tuna (or nopales).

Step 2: Be overly bubbly/happy to compensate for Manthing's grumpy "I don't want to do this" attitude.

Step 3: Find easily accessible prickly pear patch. We drove for about 20 minutes and found a large patch along a fenceline. We spent about 15 minutes pulling the fruit off with tongs. Avoid touching and/or brushing up against any part of the prickly pear. I cannot stress this enough (evidenced by the time Manthing spent with a bright light, tweezers, and a magnifying glass)

Step 4: Drive home to the barrio and give your nosey neighbor some of the purple "tuna." Apparently she cooks them in her scrambled eggs and also makes a syrup to serve with her tequila.

Step 5: Allow Manthing to fire up his flamethrower that is normally used for killing weeds/tumbleweeds. Lay all fruit on your outdoor grill, fire with the flamethrower for several minutes until all small thorns/stickers are burned off. Flip over and repeat. (We used the flamethrower because we were in a hurry and wanted to use both racks on the grill at once)

Step 6: Weight the fruit and try not to let the juice, that is going everywhere, stain anything.

Step 7: Freeze as much as the fruit as possible so that you can juice it tomorrow.

Will keep you updated on the process as I go. Not quite sure what recipe I will use yet.
I'm not quite sure how to post pictures but as soon as I figure it out I will post some.

This stuff is bright magenta. Seriously, I cannot get over how BRIGHT and pinky purple this stuff is.

We ended up with 30.5 lbs. We picked a full 5 gallon bucket and about 1/4 of another 5 gallon bucket.
 
Really interesting. Being from New Jersey, I don't think I would even recognize prickly pear. Pictures would be nice..

One other thing.. Seems to me that your guy went through a lot to help you. I think you should do something nice for him. Perhaps you could stop calling him "your manthing". (LOL)
 
Scroll down to the country fruit section. there is a long thread on there about prickly pear wine. I have not read clear thru it as like John, I wouldn't know a prickly pear if it came up and bit me. Would probably recognize it next time, tho. Anyway, there are some recipes, trials and tribulations folks have gone thru. Mite help you if you read it before you get too far along. Good luck with the wine. Arne.
 
Thanks Arne.

I've read through it and I'm thinking I will probably follow the first recipe posted. Right now I'm just trying to decide how to juice my fruit.


John,
Manthing is aware of my online moniker for him...he chose it. Our relationship is secure, we both appreciate each other immensely.
 
I'll bet your nosy neighbor doesn't use the fruit in her eggs but the young pads themselves. They are delicious too, kind of like tangy asparagus.

Keep us updated on this, sounds amazing!
 
Ah.. Jeri you are a going to make this a legendary wine. I would have never even looked twice at those sticky b-tards. Before you get too far, look at Jack Kellers recipe http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/prickly.asp. He's kind of a legend and has an entire section on native Texas wines. He lives just south of San Antonio. Let me warn you, his recipes are daunting, but if you take the basics and ask questions, I bet you will have a rockin' vino.
 
oh my heck!

An entire evenings worth of chopping, slicing, peeling, boiling and straining.

And I'm not even halfway done!

But I have about a gallon and a half of juice so far.
I just poured it into a glass gallon jug and put it in the fridge.
I strained through a mesh bag and cotton fabric.
Tomorrow I will run it through a coffee filter just to make sure I got everything out of the juice and start freezing it.
I'm waiting on my larger containers to come in from Midwest. As soon as I get those in I will set about making wine.
I also want to do something with prickly pears, sugar and vodka. This stuff is really good. I may or may not have whipped up a little something while I was monkeying around with the prickly pear fruit. Holy hannah. Adding sugar really brings out the flavor. It tastes like a cross between kiwi fruit and watermelon.

One thing I did want to ask....I'm a little afraid of pathogens being in the fruit juice right now.
Should I add something to the juice before freezing it or will it be fine to wait until I'm actually making the wine?
 
Lori thanks!

I've checked out his site and I used a modified version of his juicing technique tonight.

I'm still working on my recipe but I think I'm going to do something between his version and the recipe that Snowgirl used.

Downwards,
No she actually uses the fruit.
She has a prickly pear in her front yard, hers just isn't fruiting this year. She seasons and grills the "nopales" like steak and they are really good eating.
 
John,
Manthing is aware of my online moniker for him...he chose it. Our relationship is secure, we both appreciate each other immensely.

Jeri,

The problem with blogs is that you can not hear the tone of ones voice. I really was just joking. I need to be a little more careful in future.

All of this sounds amazingly cool. Any chance at some picures??
 
Jeri,
You do not have to filter everything out before you ferment it. It will clear after fermenting and anything left in it should fall out after degassing and letting it sit and clear. You will then rack the wine off and leave the junk that falls out. Arne.
 
oh my heck!

An entire evenings worth of chopping, slicing, peeling, boiling and straining.

And I'm not even halfway done!

Why not just leave in the fruit? You'll get more flavor in the wine this way. I would really only worry about cutting them open and taking out those seeds, dump the rest right into your primary fermenter.


I also want to do something with prickly pears, sugar and vodka. This stuff is really good. I may or may not have whipped up a little something while I was monkeying around with the prickly pear fruit. Holy hannah. Adding sugar really brings out the flavor. It tastes like a cross between kiwi fruit and watermelon.

Sounds amazing! You should look at my thread titled umeshu. It's a japanese liquor that I made by steeping plums in vodka and sugar. Bet you could use these fruits in exactly the same way!

One thing I did want to ask....I'm a little afraid of pathogens being in the fruit juice right now.
Should I add something to the juice before freezing it or will it be fine to wait until I'm actually making the wine?

I would simply be cutting them open to remove the seeds, then freeze the fruit as is whole and together in a ziplock bag. When you're ready to make wine thaw them with pectic enzyme and add your k-meta to protect from the bacteria or wild yeasts. I think that you'll find as they thaw and mix with the pectic enzyme they will pretty much become juice. After 3-4 days you can add some bentonite to make sure the particles will all come out and your finished wine should be pretty clear!
 
I'm going to throw another batch of this on later this week and I wanted to validate that I'm getting the best and most from the fruit.

In my first batch I followed the instructions on Jack Keller's site for "juicing" the fruit (see Jack's Recipe). In short, he suggests peeling the skin off, chopping the fruit into < 1 inch cubes then simmering it for about 15 minutes. He then suggests letting it cool, straining off the water+juice and the squeezing out the remaining pulp.

The above posts suggest removing the seeds and simply chopping the (unpeeled) fruit into chunks, then boiling/straining or simply bagging the fruit and putting it in the primary as is. So -- my questions are as follows:
  1. Should I really be removing the seeds?
  2. Is boiling the best way to prepare the fruit?
  3. What do we mean by peeling -- during my first batch I found that the outer skin was very thin, but then there was a 1/4" thick rind-like layer underneath -- should I be including that part?
Here's a picture for what my "peeling" looked like - you can see the bowl of pulp (including seeds), and the cutting board with the "skins" on it -- am I wasting good fruit?

Batch-32-Image-0-Prickly_Pears_-_pulp_and_skins.jpg
 
Heres a pic of the color.

Just moved into the carboy for the last bit of fermenting. This is watered down to skeeter pee instructions

IMG_20130908_154619_190.jpg



Steam juicing sure made it easy.

I just picked the fruit, froze them whole for a few days, thawed them (with pectic enzyme applied) and then chopped them or split them open while they continued thawing and put it all right in the steam juicer's collander.
 
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Sgx2,

From what I understand, leaving the seeds (of pretty much any fruit) can cause bitterness in the wine.
Also, I've read that these particular seeds can be ground down and used as a type of flour. I really don't know about what particular nutritional makeup they have, but it doesn't sound like anything I'd want floating in my carboy.
Also, the skin is the tough part that is very thin on the outer edge. If you are using a very small paring knife it is probably about the same thickness as your knife blade. Once you lift up one edge, it should just peel off in mostly one piece. Any thicker than that and you are taking some of the fruit/meat off.
Have you ever roasted green chilis? About the same amount of thickness of what you peel off of them.



Crown King Robb,
So you throw the pectic enzyme on while the fruit is still thawing?
Do you mind sharing your ratio? I was thinking about a 1/2 tsp of enzyme per gallon of juice, but I'm not sure how that would translate out with the whole fruit? What happens if I use too much enzyme?
And do you just sprinkle it all on and mix it in, then let it continue thawing?


Argh! It sounds like I need to just decide if I want to do more work upfront and steam it all out and end up with just the juice, or be quicker up front and throw it all in my primary and get going, then deal with a lot of debris later on.
Plus....I just don't know which one will taste better! Angst!
 
John, sorry, you are right it is hard to convey tone here.
I will admit to a little bit of irrational catback when I read your post and I apologize.

Arne and James, thanks. I'm still debating pure juice vs fruit must.
I'm torn as to what is best.
I think I'm getting ready to call it on my first batch....it's a fail.
I want this one to be perfect.
 
From what I understand, leaving the seeds (of pretty much any fruit) can cause bitterness in the wine.
Also, I've read that these particular seeds can be ground down and used as a type of flour. I really don't know about what particular nutritional makeup they have, but it doesn't sound like anything I'd want floating in my carboy.
Also, the skin is the tough part that is very thin on the outer edge. If you are using a very small paring knife it is probably about the same thickness as your knife blade. Once you lift up one edge, it should just peel off in mostly one piece. Any thicker than that and you are taking some of the fruit/meat off.
Have you ever roasted green chilis? About the same amount of thickness of what you peel off of them.
Jeri -- thanks, this was helpful! :)
 
I followed the dragon blood skeeter pee recipe by Danger dave, only I used Prickly pear juice and 1lb of whole raisins in the primary, instead of 6 lbs of frozen triple berry. I steam juiced about 10lbs worth of Prickly Pear for the 6 gallon primary. Since this isnt a proven recipe I may need to dilute the product to taste, we'll find out.

I used 4 tsp worth on ~ 10 lbs of Prickly Pear.... 6 gallons end product.


Here is a thread though.
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f45/steam-juicer-pectic-enzyme-25737/



Wikipedia--- Pectinases have also been used in wine production since the 1960s.[1] The function of pectinase in brewing is twofold, first it helps breakdown the plant (typically fruit) material and so helps the extraction of flavours from the mash. Secondly the presence of pectin in finished wine causes a haze or slight cloudiness, Pectinase is used to break this down and so clear the wine.​
 
John, sorry, you are right it is hard to convey tone here.
I will admit to a little bit of irrational catback when I read your post and I apologize.

Arne and James, thanks. I'm still debating pure juice vs fruit must.
I'm torn as to what is best.
I think I'm getting ready to call it on my first batch....it's a fail.
I want this one to be perfect.

No, keep going! Really there are lots of ways to do this, my suggestions are just suggestions. Also you'll learn a lot just by going for it. If you want to juice them (steam or otherwise) that will make a wine. If you want to go whole fruit, that will too. I know it all sounds complicated, but either way really is not. Perfect wine doesn't exist, it's the striving that is important. I've made wines I really really like out of grocery store apple juice concentrates. Believe me, this will be good either way! Don't get discouraged.
 
Downwards,

I'm pretty excited about this prickly pear wine.

My first batch is a raisin/lavender wine. I don't think I added enough sugar, I'm pretty sure my fermentation either stalled or stopped, it smells funny and I think I see beasties in it, though I'm not sure.
 
Sgx2,

From what I understand, leaving the seeds (of pretty much any fruit) can cause bitterness in the wine.
Also, I've read that these particular seeds can be ground down and used as a type of flour. I really don't know about what particular nutritional makeup they have, but it doesn't sound like anything I'd want floating in my carboy.
Also, the skin is the tough part that is very thin on the outer edge. If you are using a very small paring knife it is probably about the same thickness as your knife blade. Once you lift up one edge, it should just peel off in mostly one piece. Any thicker than that and you are taking some of the fruit/meat off.
Have you ever roasted green chilis? About the same amount of thickness of what you peel off of them.



Crown King Robb,
So you throw the pectic enzyme on while the fruit is still thawing?
Do you mind sharing your ratio? I was thinking about a 1/2 tsp of enzyme per gallon of juice, but I'm not sure how that would translate out with the whole fruit? What happens if I use too much enzyme?
And do you just sprinkle it all on and mix it in, then let it continue thawing?


Argh! It sounds like I need to just decide if I want to do more work upfront and steam it all out and end up with just the juice, or be quicker up front and throw it all in my primary and get going, then deal with a lot of debris later on.
Plus....I just don't know which one will taste better! Angst!

If you throw everything in, get some kind of strainer bag and use. If you go to a paint store, they have mesh bags for straining 5 gal. buckets of paint. Put the fruit in there and when it becomes time to take it out you simply take the bag out. The bags are pretty inexpensive too. You mite need a large primary or several small ones to fit all the fruit into. Arne.
 

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