Advice on habanero mead recipe

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Liquisky

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Since I moved to El Paso 4 years ago I've developed a taste for spicy foods and thought this would be a great drink. I'd like some help so that I don't screw it up.

Here's what I'm considering.

Spring water to make 1 gallon
4 pounds of local honey, (far west Texas, near El Paso, variety (i.e. clover, alfalfa, wildflower, NOT on label)
1 habanero chili
1 packet Lalvin 118, dehydrated and pitched per instructions on label.

1) I'm thinking of roasting and skinning the chili and removing the seeds.
Should I add the chili before or after fermentation is complete?

2) I don't have pectic enzyme. Should I?

3) I have "Yeast Energizer: Nutrient Booster." On the label it says: Diammonium Phosphate (DVP), Yeast Hulls (Biotin), Magnesium Sulphate, Vitamin B Complex.
Do I need anything else for nutrients?

I'm thinking of only heating the honey enough to get it to mix in the water.

Any other advice is more than welcome.


3) I have "Yeast Energizer: Nutrient Booster." On the lable it says: Diammonium Phosphate (DVP), Yeast Hulls (Biotin), Magnesium Sulphate, Vitamin B Complex.
Do I need anything else for nutrients?

I'm thinking of only heating the honey enough to get it to mix in the water.

Any other advice is more than welcome.
 
dont heat the honey, just use water around 140-160F and only enough to dissolve the honey after that use cooler water to lower the temp. If your honey comes outta solution dont worry the yeast will get it.

other than that I cant offer much help, but I dont think I would roast the chilis, not sure how they smoky ness would come through.

good luck
 
I can't imagine you'd get much habanero taste or spiciness from just one pepper. Here's a link to a Jalapeno Wine recipe that calls for 16 large chili's. You might be able to get some ideas from that recipe.

It depends on hot hot you want, but I would use more than 1 chili and maybe leave some seeds in for additional heat.
 
I used two homegrown, small to medium sized scotch bonnets (hotter than habanerros (in same family)) dried/put in 160 degree water to rehydrate and removed stem and seeds.

Apollo, I got the basic recipe from https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/habanero-capsicumel-60272/

I guess I can add more scotch bonnets, but they are significantly hotter than jalapeños. Maybe I'll taste in a few weeks.

Starting gravity is 1.130
 
I do love jerk chicken....I do grimaces at the thought of a Scotch bonnet mead.

I'll try it if you ever have a shot glass of it somewhere to try....but my god I can't imagine it being good.
 
BigKahuna said:
"I do love jerk chicken....I do grimaces at the thought of a Scotch bonnet mead.

I'll try it if you ever have a shot glass of it somewhere to try....but my god I can't imagine it being good."

Question:

Have you every made a spicy pepper mead? What's your recipe?

thanks
 
1) I'm thinking of roasting and skinning the chili and removing the seeds.
Should I add the chili before or after fermentation is complete?


I added mine to the carboy at the beginning of fermentation.

2) I don't have pectic enzyme. Should I?

I think you'll be fine without it. I just happened to have some on hand. Pectic enzyme breaks down the cell wall of fruits, increasing the juice yield and allowing the yeast to eat the sugars. It also works as a clarifier, preventing pectin haze caused by residual pectins.
Not a necessity.

3) I have "Yeast Energizer: Nutrient Booster." On the label it says: Diammonium Phosphate (DVP), Yeast Hulls (Biotin), Magnesium Sulphate, Vitamin B Complex.
Do I need anything else for nutrients?

Sounds good to me.

I'm thinking of only heating the honey enough to get it to mix in the water.

I didn't fully boil mine either. I just heated above 160* for 45 minutes until everything was fully blended. I guess I should have included that in the recipe. Perhaps I'll go and edit it a little bit.



Good luck with the recipe, let us know how it turns out.
 
Well i do know this is extremely late, but how did it turn out? im about to make a 1 gallon batch of an Orange Blossom Habanero Mead and am looking to how many peppers, how to prep them, and how hot it will probably be. The mead has started already and is about 4 days in to the primary so adding it soon shouldnt change much i dont think.
 
I've heard of a few people making capiscumels using habanero. One guy said he used one per gallon right from primary, and that it started off nice, but once he bottled it and waited a while, it kept getting hotter and hotter. he also may have accidentally kept a piece of pepper in the bottle, though. The other guy said he added it during secondary and it worked it decently. If it's just the heat you're looking for, I Reccomend making an extract out of your scotch bonnets and adding it to taste when in secondary or before bottling. This is something on my list of projects that I haven't gotten to yet, so let me know if it goes well :)
 
Its really hard to go by other peoples tastes in peppers. We grow Caribean Reds every year, much hotter than normal orange store bought habs, so adding 1 of these would make people who think 1 orange hab, deveined, is hot go running for the ice cream:) It really depends on your hotness level, if you think Taco Bell is hot 1 storebought orange hab is right for you, if you consider yourself a chilehead extreme a Bhut Jolokia (the infamous Ghost Pepper) might be a better addition to your mead, call it Ghost Mead, one drink your a ghost:) WVMJ

Well i do know this is extremely late, but how did it turn out? im about to make a 1 gallon batch of an Orange Blossom Habanero Mead and am looking to how many peppers, how to prep them, and how hot it will probably be. The mead has started already and is about 4 days in to the primary so adding it soon shouldnt change much i dont think.
 
Its really hard to go by other peoples tastes in peppers. We grow Caribean Reds every year, much hotter than normal orange store bought habs, so adding 1 of these would make people who think 1 orange hab, deveined, is hot go running for the ice cream:) It really depends on your hotness level, if you think Taco Bell is hot 1 storebought orange hab is right for you, if you consider yourself a chilehead extreme a Bhut Jolokia (the infamous Ghost Pepper) might be a better addition to your mead, call it Ghost Mead, one drink your a ghost:) WVMJ

Ghost peppers lack the complex tropical taste of habs, I bet habenero peppers would make an excellent addition to mead.
 
Im not just looking for heat, im trying to get some of the actual flavor from the habanero and a balance of the heat that makes you be like "OH SH*T" and take a couple deep breaths before taking another sip haha. i will probably start by adding A habanero, then add more to the secondary as time progresses. Im gonna use seeds and ribs and all so it will hopefully incorporate rather quickly.
 
If you really want amazing flavor and TONS of heat, find a yellow 7 pot. Hotter than a bhut and tastier than a hab.
 
well its a bit late, i picked up 4 super market Habanero's so they wont be as good as the ones from the asian market but oh well. I'll cut up 1 at a time and add it in and wait a couple days before adding another
 
Im making an update on my Habanero Mead with Orange Blossom Honey. its about 25 days in and i racked it to its secondary. Its very clear, and SPICY! Im hoping it will mellow out with some time but probably not. I added 1 whole orange Hab, and 1 w/o seeds to the 1 gallon batch. how much would you suggest back-sweetening it to just add a bit of sweetness that will add more floral character and off set some heat?
 
We grew some lemon peppers last year, very nice taste, enough heat to be interesting, the best chile we have had that actually had some fruit taste to it. WVMJ
 
WVMJ said:
We grew some lemon peppers last year, very nice taste, enough heat to be interesting, the best chile we have had that actually had some fruit taste to it. WVMJ

Sounds like that would go very nicely with a mead! I'd definitely try it :D

The spice in the mead probably will not cool down, but the drink will probably smooth out over time. I'd recommend aging it quite a bit if you can help it. Make sure not to get any habanero chunks in it like the last guy did :p that'll spice it up ten times worse.
 
oh yeah it was sitting on the chunks for a month and that made it fire, so its not sitting on them anymore, and definitely wont be bottled with them
 
Im not just looking for heat, im trying to get some of the actual flavor from the habanero and a balance of the heat that makes you be like "OH SH*T" and take a couple deep breaths before taking another sip haha. i will probably start by adding A habanero, then add more to the secondary as time progresses. Im gonna use seeds and ribs and all so it will hopefully incorporate rather quickly.

If you want more of the flavor than heat, I'd remove the seeds and ribs. Depending on how long you leave the habanero in there, you can have a nice heat on the lips to a stronger heat.
 
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