Anybody have experience with fermenting cactus?

[Avery L. Breath]

.... was just wondering around the possibilities of how well san pedro beer would turn out.

here's a recipe for Prickly Pear Wine for those who might live near a patch...

Prickly Pear Fruit
Sugar
Distilled Water

Place cleaned and cut up prickly pears [fruits] in a 10 gallon [40 litres] crock. Mash fruit well, cover crock with a cloth. Let fruit stand for about seven days until it ferments. The mixture will bubble during fermenting stage. When bubbling stops, strain juice.

Measure juice and add equal amounts of distilled water. Allowing 2 lbs [1 kg] of sugar to a gallon [4 litres] of the liquid. Mix sugar with part of the water to dissolve the sugar before adding it to the juice. Mix the juice and water with dissolved sugar together. (The sugar will not dissolve if it is added to the juice and water after they have been mixed.)

Pour the mixed juice into a jug to age. Place a tight fitting cork with a hole in the centre in the top of the jug. Place nylon hose through the centre of the hole. Do not let the hose touch the wine mixture. Seal around the cork with paraffin. Place the other end of the hose in jug with water. Secure the hose so it will not slip out of the water. Allow about a week or so then you can bottle the wine.

by Gilbert A. Hinojosa

[VajraPirate]

San Pedro beer?

That is both repulsive and hilarious at the same time.

[laughingwillow]

Interesting question. I doubt the traditional range of alcohol in beer would help much with extraction, though. I suppose it depends if you want to use extracted cactus as a beer additive to mask the flavor or as the mass to be fermented. The potential reaction/extraction by alcohol might be more suited to a cactus brandy, but where is a scientist type when you need one?  

I've thought long and hard about psilly beer, btw.

Also, one may want to add yeast to the prickley pear mass before attempting fermentation.

lw

[jokergrin]

I agree with LW...some people rely on wild yeasts that are on grapes for the fermentation process of wines...but for cactus...it's probably best to add yeast so the flesh/juice doesn't oxidize and turn into cactus vinegar or worse.

[JRL]

To me it sounds like a rampage waiting to happen.

[visionarybear]

i can just see it now, the drinker would begin to metamorphesise into a bull elephant and start rampaging through small villages leaving rubble in its wake..nice..

cant imagine it would taste too good..take bitter beer to a whole new level...

in theory, if one brewed it with ebough plant material, it should be no different to any other brew of the matter, esp with a good boil pre ferment... i can already see it as the new clandestine distributioin method...

hmm..if you mixed it with other fruits it could make hte flavour more paletable maybe..

the possibilities...

[blazed123]

Haha bitter beer...

No but i've actually hear something about saguaro beer.

this is a fun link you might find interesting:

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/features/24 ... nbeer.html

[Avery L. Breath]

..... interesting, thanks for the link.

A~

[blazed123]

No problem at all.  Hope you found it useful.

[LizJah]

Ahhh...Pedro  beer....

Everyone loves a cold six-pack of rotted cacti flesh!! Almost as good as gargling cats!

Thank you for them memories....

http://www.pukeplanet.com/

Ever,

Lizzy

[wrinkled_dragons]

actually, would the vinager be such a bad idea? Generally boiling instructions state you should add citric acid, vinager tends to have the same effect from what I have read. Perhaps a long air dry afterwards would result in a nice resin.  :roll:

[innoculated]

I think making a Kambucha brew out of San Pedro might be more appropriate. It just might digest some of the bitterness out of it.