Prickly Pear Wine

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John,

No I don't know the ph.

I have ph strips somewhere. This was one of the first wines I ever made and I attempted to use them on it at the beginning.
The wine/must just dyed the strip a bright purple/pink color. I never could figure out how people use them.
 
Wasn't sure where to post this, but we recently made our first prickly pear wine. Seems to be going great so far!!! I did not cut them up at all. My Dad and I burned them using a pear burner (basically a flame thrower used to burn the needles off so cattle can eat them during a drought) lightly to remove the needles then I put them in a big crab boiling pot and covered them with about two gallons of water. Let them boil for about 45 minutes then smush them with a potato masher and strained through an old t-shirt. Voila awesome colored juice! However, I am concerned because my juice was not sweet at all... But it had a wild taste to it! Added the sugar I needed to get the ABV where I wanted and it tasted much better....Just completed first racking after two weeks in carboy...most sediment I have seen (like 2 inches) in the bottom of a carboy...

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I used a steam juicer so I can't really speak to how much sediment usually forms.

It does have an interesting spicy green, almost haylike taste to it at first. After a year, mine still has nuances of that but there is an odd spicy fruity taste to it now.
I'm pretty pleased with mine.
 
I can say that the alcohol flavor right now is really overrunning every other flavor. But I can see what you are saying about the haylike taste to it.
 
Ok so I tried it this morning and the alcohol flavor has died down, but the pear flavor is.... interesting... It might change in a month or so, and I am going to sweeten it, but not sure if I will try it again...
 
Hi
I am attempting my first liquer "umeshu" with unripe plums, sugar and vodka. A small problem with the early onset a week in that the fruit rises to the top and the top plums are exposed because of the buoyancy, and appear to brown a lot faster so I removed the first written looking ones, to find the next takes its place and to the same result. A week in. Any advice, leave them, or remove? Awkward beginners moment here.
 
Hi
I am attempting my first liquer "umeshu" with unripe plums, sugar and vodka. A small problem with the early onset a week in that the fruit rises to the top and the top plums are exposed because of the buoyancy, and appear to brown a lot faster so I removed the first written looking ones, to find the next takes its place and to the same result. A week in. Any advice, leave them, or remove? Awkward beginners moment here.

Put something on top of the plums to keep them submerged. In canning, I use small glass discs made to fit into widemouth canning jars. Historically, our ancestors used sterilized rocks, bits of ceramic, whatever.
 
Also, once they have been consistently exposed to the air and turn brown, I would toss them. I use the above weights when I make preserved lemons and it keeps them submerged nicely for the better part of a year before I am ready to use them.
 
Thank-you
Will do, I shall replace the lost plums if I can, its getting hard to find un-ripe plums now on this side of the world.
 

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