Batch 132, Prickly Pear Beer

Another batch of the Prickly Pear Beer recipe that I made in April 2011. It wasn't a very good beer at first, but the keg that sat in the back of the fridge for a year came out delicious.

10 gallon batch.

15 lbs 2-row
1 lbs wheat
8 lbs prickly pears
2 oz Delta hops, 60 minutes
Wyeast 1272 from batch 131

Mash at 152F.

Like last time, it's a guess on the weight of the pears. I looked at the pictures, found the same bucket, and filled it to the same level.

This turned out to be a pain in the ass day. It took forever for the wort to boil, then I finally realized I barely had the gas on. Doh! Then the false bottom in the boil kettle must have floated, because pear seeds got picked up and clogged the pump. Had to do a complete disassembly to get the pump to work again. While working on the pump, I drained the kettle by gravity into a bucket with a strainer, then poured the wort back into my now empty mash tun. Pump ran fine after that.

The new wort chiller worked like a charm. I'm still figuring out how to work my system with all the upgrades I did recently. The pick up tubes on the BK and HLT don't seal well, so they suck air rather than completely draining the kettle. The mash tun seems to work fine, maybe because the grain helps clog any gaps.

I pumped the wort directly on to the yeast cake from batch 131.