Prickly Pear puree addition?

[TandemTails]

I'm planning a brew day some time the week of Christmas and want to use up some prickly pear puree I froze a few months ago when they were ripe. For those who don't know, prickly pears are the fruit that grow on certain cactuses. They ripen in October/November and have a deep red/purple color and have a mild flavor similar to raspberry/watermelon/kiwi fruit.

I'm going to use the Centennial Blonde recipe as my base and then add the prickly pear puree to it. I have 12 cups of filtered puree frozen right now and I'm trying to figure out the best way to add it to the beer.

For simplicity sake, the method I'm leaning toward the most is to add the puree at flameout (or when the wort reduces temp to 160).

Will too much of the prickly pear flavor be consumed by the yeast if I do it in primary? I'd like to avoid having to rack to secondary if possible.

Also, any suggestions on how much puree to add?

 

[willrun4beer]

The prickly pears I've eaten have had a really strong squash taste, nothing like fruit at all... are you adding something else to the purée?

 

[GHBWNY]

Don't know the particulars of prickly pear (sugar content, acidity, etc.), but I recently did a 5 gal batch of wit to which I added apricot in the secondary. In hindsight, I wish I had used the 4 lb. (canned) that was suggested, but because of the extra cost, I opted for only half as much. Drained and rinsed, made a puree, heated to 180F for several min. with 1/4 C. each water and honey. Left in secondary for 2 weeks and tasted before bottling. The essence of apricot, both aroma and taste, was *there* but peripheral at best. At bottling, I added apricot extract, but it's not the same as the real thing.