Batch 107, Prickly Pear Beer

A second attempt at a prickly pear beer. The one I made last year still isn't very good. I tried a bottle today, so I know for sure. This year, I did things a little different. First, no honey. Second, no cooking of the prickly pears. I just added them at flame out and let them sit for about 10 minutes. Like last year, I ran them through my food processor first to make sort of a prickly pear soup.

10 gallon batch.

15 lbs 2-row
1 lbs wheat
8 lbs prickly pears (just a guess, I didn't actually weigh them)
2 oz Delta hops, 60 minutes
Wyeast 1318, London Ale III yeast

Mash at 152F.

I didn't calculate any sugar contribution from the pears, so I really don't know what they add. Just the grain should have given me an OG of 1.045, I ended up with 1.052 actual. Volumes were dead on, so I'm going to guess the difference is from the pears.

I used the new stainless braids that I made today. They worked very well.

A few brewday pictures:

The prickly pears. Lots of seeds and a lot of very small cactus spines.

About 2 gallons after the food processor.

New screen in the boil kettle.

New screen in the mash tun.

No screen in the HLT.

Grain is ready to grind.

Grinding grain. Mostly 2-row with a little wheat.

A picture of me brewing.

Another picture of me.

Mash out. I sure do like this thermometer.

Hops are ready. I went with Delta instead of Willamette because I was out of Willamette.

I put this screen over the boil kettle because the trees kept dropping things.

Those are the things I hope to prevent from getting in my beer.

Those are the trees. Last day of skiing at Bogus.

It's quite red in color, no scorched flavor this year!

Almost done, just filling the fermenters.