Prickly Pear Cactus Wine

Does anyone have a good recipe for making Prickly Pear Cactus wine? The prickly pear cactus in the Texas panhandle have exploded with fruit this year and I have harvested and steamed 6 gallons of juice. I have made jelly before from this, but never wine. The jelly is awesome so i would think it would make a great wine. The juice is almost a fluorescent purple red, so i am hoping the color will be really nice as well. Any ideas on a recipe? I have an idea of how I would do it, but wanting to see if anyone else has thoughts.

Oh, and specifically, what I am looking for is a recipe that uses the juice, and not the fruit. I have seen several using chopped up fruit, but I have already juiced the fruit with my steamer. Just need some feedback on using pure juice. Thanks!

I have a prickly pear mead in progress, so far so good. The recipe was shared with my by someone who lives in NV. No reason why you could not substitute sugar to reach your desired S.G.
Another option is to use your prickly pear jelly--and follow the already documented recipes for "jam/jelly wine" which uses 48 oz of jam/jelly per gallon & typically requires little to NO additional sugar unless you want to kick up the potential ACV.

~3-4 pounds honey
3 qts prickly pear cactus juice (steam juiced)
1-11oz can frozen 100% white grape juice concentrate
water to 1 gallon
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp yeast energizer
1 ½ tsp pectic enzyme
Sweet Mead Yeast (or Côte des Blancs, aka Epernay II)

Procedure
Combine juice, concentrate, water, pectic enzyme and sugar to reach desired starting S.G. Cover lightly and allow to rest for 24hr, add yeast nutrient, aerate well and pitch yeast (according to package directions) Ferment at temperature as recommended per the chosen yeast strain.
Dose with yeast energizer when S.G. has dropped by 1/3. Rack from open to air, lightly covered primary to airlocked carboy when S.G. has dropped by 2/3. Overall fermentation of this mead may last anywhere from 3 months to 1 year. Fermentation may stop months before the mead clears. Rack the mead at least once every 60-90 days, as long as dropping sediment. Avoid splashing and aeration of mead during all transfers. Bottle when fermentation is complete and mead is degassed and clear.
When working with prickly pear, it is always recommended to have heat application when processing the fruit (some boil it with water and others steam juice)... even though it sets the pectin in it and causes haze to form in the mead. Prickly pear fruit juice is very mucilaginous and even more so if the juice is not heat processed. The haze eventually settles out. You may dose with equal amounts pectic enzyme when in the primary and as you rack from primary to airlock for the first time. If making a WINE, remember to use your k-meta (or Campden tabs) per winemaking standards.

Of course, when ready to bottle don't forget to dose with k-meta/campden + sorbate if choosing to backsweeten. Always allow to remain under airlock for 7-14 days after stabilizing/backsweetening to monitor for refermentation (per S.G. checks) and then rack one final time before bottling. I recommend filtering prickly pear mead/wine simply because the hairs/barbs on the fruit can be quite minute and are irritating if swallowed.

I too am making the prickly pear. I found a recipe that calls for raisins, but I think I'm leaning towards this recipe above. Thanks for the post! Oh, I too am using all juice as I already have it in the freezer for making jelly

I transferred mine to the secondary today I am also worried about the color, I have heard from others who had theirs turn blush and even white.

I have talked to many who say the same about the color, but I have also talked to several who said their wine retained the color. Guess we will find out won't we?
I am likely going to backsweeten and plan to use cactus pear honey syrup.
Mine is still dark magenta.

saramc said:

I have talked to many who say the same about the color, but I have also talked to several who said their wine retained the color. Guess we will find out won't we?
I am likely going to backsweeten and plan to use cactus pear honey syrup.
Mine is still dark magenta.

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In my experience, boiling the fruit causes the color to fade as the wine (or mead) ages.
I have made PP wine (and mead) with the tunas frozen and made it with no freezing or boiling of the fruit and never got any 'slime' produced.
Putting in PP juice in the secondary helps. I think I will try back sweetening with PP honey syrup in this batch (if it needs it).

Great, mine were boiled lol

snowgirl812001 said:

Great, mine were boiled lol

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the more it fades the better it gets, is how I look at it

Ok, that makes me feel better haha

I started a second batch of prickly pear last night. This time I used raisins instead of the grape concentrate, so I can try different varieties. I don't know if it will be much different, but here goes anyway lol.

Robin, mine is just about at the same stage as yours. I placed in the secondary this last weekend and it still have the bright magenta color. I steamed juiced my fruit so it will be interesting to see if it holds the color or not.

I have mine covered trying to keep it cool & dark. I'm hoping that color doesn't go away, it's so bold

snowgirl812001 said:

I have mine covered trying to keep it cool & dark. I'm hoping that color doesn't go away, it's so bold

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I just opened a 14 year old bottle of prickly pear. You can see how much it's color has changed to a yellowish red. But it sure does taste good.

Beautiful!!! I guess as long as it tastes good, color isn't that important

snowgirl812001 said:

Beautiful!!! I guess as long as it tastes good, color isn't that important

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Well actually it is a Prickly Pear Mead (as my daddy used to say 'same thing only different').
I just wanted to show you the color change.

Well thank you

txlbbguy...do you have access to the recipe for that 14 year old cactus pear mead?

saramc said:

txlbbguy...do you have access to the recipe for that 14 year old cactus pear mead?

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'Joy of Homebrewing' by Charlie Papazian. Last batch of mead that I have ever boiled.

Racked both batches today. First one seems better in color/clearing so far. The second one still has some clearing to do & seems to be slightly different in color. (from the raisins I'm sure)