nibot ([personal profile] nibot) wrote2007-11-11 09:32 pm

prickly pear mead

Hmm... My parents' living room is full of honey from our beehives, and in the backyard there's a huge prickly-pear cactus laden with fruit. Perhaps we should make prickly-pear mead? Great journal entry by [livejournal.com profile] nysso.

fermentation

[identity profile] limegreensneaks.livejournal.com 2007-11-12 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
I'm a big fan of making alcohol in your home...Brian (and I to a lesser extent) have 7 or 8 (or 9?) different types of wine and mead waiting for us to return from Australia. Brian has been making wine for 4 or 5 years, and I've been his lovely assistant for just about as long (mostly I do things like figure out the pH and remind him was the word "sterile" means when we rack).

That said, I suggest you make sure that you like mead before going through all the trouble of making several gallons of mead. Some people really like mead, but Brian and I are not of that variety (yet). Which stinks because 1.) We have some regular mead and some apple mead that is close to the 2 year mark (when mead is supposed to get "yummy") but we don't know anyone who would drink it. 2.) I would really like to keep bees, but I don't consume a large amount of honey...oh, if only we liked mead!

Anyway, if you do like mead, or if you want to continue on with your experiment anyway, or if you'd like to make prickly pear wine, there is an excellent wine making community on live J. I'm a member, and you can probably find it on my info page (my internet connection is running slow and I'm lazy, so I won't find it for you). Wine/mead making is a pretty slick hobby, and we miss it a lot. I hope you enjoy it if you get into it!!!

[identity profile] furzicle.livejournal.com 2007-11-12 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Basically, we could augment the storage of honey and hives in the living room with wine making equipment. Martha Stewart decor be damned!
(What Martha Stwart decor?)