Cactus Wine?

Welcome, Check out Jack's wine site, he's made wine from a lot of different things. You'll also find a lot of info on making wine.

Aloha. Panini is Mexican prickly pear cactus. It was introduced to Hawaii ~1800 with the best of intentions as a cattle feed. Mexican cattle love it. Hawaiian cattle got indigestion, and dumb though cows may be, refused to eat it. So now it's a pest and nobody is quite sure of how to get rid of it. But you can make great wine from it!

Jack Keller has a recipe somewhere on his website:

Despite their sweetness, you will probably have to add sugar. The best thing is to use a hydrometer to determine the amount. The procedure is described in the aforementioned website under "winemaking basics".

Bakers yeast _will_ work for starting fermentation. The problem is it won't ferment to more than 7-9% alcohol, and will leave residual sugar and a yeasty flavour in your wine. A packet of wine yeast costs $0.25-1.00 depending where you buy it, and is well worth the investment. For cactus wine, I would suggest Premier Cuvee yeast. Also, please read "winemaking basics" at the aforementioned site, as there are a number of essentials to be learned, so that your first batch does not become your last.

Definitely visit Jack's site. He has a recipe for both cactus fruit wine and cactus flower wine.

Ray

Aloha Darlene, Thanks for the link to Jacks website, he had exactly what I was lookig for, a recipe, and tips on cactus wine.

Spy in Hawaii

I've got a prickly pear melomel (mead) going in the secondary right now. At racking the flavor was nice, it's a little sweet, just enough to preserve a little of the pear's original flavor. I juiced the fruit because I was doing a 1-gallon batch, and still had plenty of lees. You can see the steps at

Thanks for the info. Another plant introduced quite by accident, and related to cattle is the Kiawe known in Mexico (and Texas) as Mesquite. The seed pods of these trees are quite sweet, and tasty, and they are still a favorite of cattle here. When the first cattle from Mexico arrived in Hawaii in the early 1800s they already had seeds of the Mesquite in there digestive tract, and everywhere they pooped a Mesquite (Kiawe) grew. It is now the most common tree in Hawaii at lower elevations. Hawaii has a cattle industry older than Texas', and the first Cowboys in Hawaii were from Old Mexico (no such thing as cowboys in U.S. yet) otherwise known as Hispaniola, and thus all future Hawaiian Cowboys would be known by a variation of the that word - Paniolo.

Has any> > Aloha from Maui, Here in upcountry Maui we have the numerous wild

I haven't heard of it being done. There isn't much sugar (to ferment) in the mesquite seed pods, but they could be better used to flavour a wine. I have experimented with using (aged) mesquite wood instead of oak, and it works very well in Concord and table grape wines.

I have not used the seed pods but I have made a mesquite mead. I don't know that it is that different form any other mead but it gives it a nice local character anyway. Jack Keller reports good success with using cured mesquite wood for aging wines. I want to try it but have not.

Ray

Spy Da Man,

Go to

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

One of these days some one is going to ask about a wine Jack has not made and stump him. ;o) Ray

Hi Jack, I have been to your website and I must say that it's quite usefull. I have a neighbor that has Prickley Pear cactus in there yard and I wanted to make a wine from it. I need to know however, what method is used to remove the spines from the fruit? TIA! Slaintia! Dominick

Dominick, I posted these instructions in the recipe:

"Put prickly pear cactus fruit in large crock or pail. Pour one gallon boiling water over fruit. Wait two minutes (to loosen skin) and drain off water. Allow fruit to cool and carefully peel skin off, being especially watchful not to touch spines."

I pick the fruit up with tongs, holding it by the top and bottom, and use a fillet knife to cut the skin and then just flick it off with the blade. It takes a few to get the technique down, but it's a lot faster than burning the spines off and then peeling them.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

Thanks Jack, I must have overlooked that. Slaintia! Dominick