Cactus Jack Wheat

First attempt at brewing a wheat beer flavored with prickly pears (the fruit of the Nopales cactus).
NOTE: This ale is a much darker color than indicated by Recipator; more of a deep maroon from the color of the prickly pears.

Brewer:	Sam Milligan		Email:	-
Beer:	Cactus Jack Wheat		Style:	American Wheat
Type:	Extract		Size:	5.5 gallons
Color:	1 HCU (~2 SRM)		Bitterness:	16 IBU
OG:	1.044		FG:	1.010
Alcohol:	4.4% v/v (3.5% w/w)
Water:	Filtered drinking water. Also poured hot wort onto a 10lb bag of ice in the fermenting bucket to cool it faster.
Boil:	60 minutes	SG 1.098	2.5 gallons
	3 lb. 3 oz. Wheat extract 3 lb. Honey
	1oz of Irish Moss last 10 minutes of boil. After boil is complete and wort is placed in fermenter, add the juice from 5lbs of prickly pears. Use ice/chilled water to bring total volume up to 5.5-6 gallons.
Hops:	1 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 60 min.) .5 oz. Tettnanger (4.5% AA, 15 min.) .5 oz. Tettnanger (aroma)
Yeast:	Munton's Ale Yeast, rehydrated in warm water with 1oz honey.
Log:	Fermented @ 72 degrees F for 7 days. Racked to secondary for 10 days. Added honey for priming and bottled.
Carbonation:	2.3 volumes	Honey: 4.98 oz. for 5.5 gallons @ 72°F
	Dissolve honey in a little warm water to mix easier. Let return to room temperature before adding to wort. Gently stir to evenly distribute throughout wort.
Tasting:	Addition of the prickly pear cactus juice turned the wort a deep red. Initial taste before fermentation: very rich with a bit of bite from the fruit juice. Taste at racking to secondary: excellent flavor, tasted more hoppy than the IBU would suggest, perhaps due to the prickly pear juice.

Recipe posted 10/31/12.