I called dibs on a batch number when I originally processed and froze the prickly pear juice, just to get the writeup started. The batch is therefore much younger than the batch number suggests. The name is a reference to the Fallout video games in honor of the electric pink color of the batch, plus the desert fruit involved.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 3 lbs cactus pears, peeled and boiled in 1 gallon of water
  • 2 gallons of batch 186, racked onto the cactus pear goop on 5/17
  • 1 lb Bennett's sage honey, added on 6/11
  • 3 organic beets, thinly sliced and added on 6/25 for color

Process

On 12/22, I sliced and partially peeled 3 lbs of cactus pears and boiled them in 1 gallon of water for two hours. This yielded one small upright IKEA tupperware's worth (gotta love my metrics here!) of bright pink juice, which I froze. I plan to start a plain Kirkland wildflower mead and add the juice in secondary to retain as much flavor and color as possible, but plans may yet change.

On 5/17, I racked two gallons of my mesquite varietal, batch 186, onto the thawed prickly pear goop. On 6/11, I found that the batch had fermented completely dry, and the lovely hot pink color was all but gone. I added a pound of sage honey, which fixed the flavor. On 6/25, I sliced up 3 fresh organic beets and dropped them in for color. This restored the color to the most vibrant EXTREME HOT PINK imaginable... but now the batch tastes like beets. Go figure.

I bottled this batch on 8/15. I didn't take a final gravity reading, but I assume this is around 12%. The batch is still hilariously pink and still tastes like goddamn beets.