Advice on "Bobby Flay" mead

I'm going to split up my 5 gallons of show mead I made a year ago. One of them is going to be my Bobby Flay mead, or Pomegranate capsicumel.

My question, is, how would I impart a smoky spicy flavor into the mead? I loooove those cans of chipotle peppers packaged in adobo. And, I think that it would marry great with pomegranate.

I highly doubt that charring some chipotle peppers would get the flavor that I'm looking for. And, I don't have a smoker or grill.. Or should I just give up on my idea and throw in a dehydrated ancho pepper and see how that works out?

Oh, and if anyone is interested the 5 gallons will be split: show mead, rosemary, vanilla/oak, hibiscus, bobby flay.

You will be able to find chipotle peppers on line very easily. There are two kinds, morita and dorado. Moritas are the little ones, they'll be what are in the cans in adobo. Dorado are larger brown ones. I use them interchangeably in cooking, generally, but I like the dorados. If you could find some you'd just have to soak a one or two in a gallon. And since you're in texas you'll probably have even easier access to peppers than I do here in vegas.

@Double_D: They have all kinds of dried and fresh peppers at the supermarkets here. But, I don't think that popping them in the carboy will accomplish my intended flavor profile.

Have you used any of the peppers in your homebrews? If so, how have they turned out?

You have to follow a procedure with the dried chiles before using them.

Remove seeds & stems - Toast in oven or skillet until darkened and fragrant, but not black/burnt - rehydrate in 180 F water for 10 minutes or, in this case, steep in the hot mead (pre-alcohol development).

Avoid using the canned chipotles packed in the tomato sauce, you'll have a mess on your hands.

I can't imagine what you're going for then, it's common practice to just let them float for a little while. Like a dry hop. The brews turned out fine, a buddy and I made a jalapeno weissen. As for the supermarkets, I miss HEB with a passion. What do you want it to taste like?

@bobbrews: That sounds like a winner. I knew I would have to rehydrate them, but was unsure if I should just stick it in the mead. In retrospect, seeds would impart some off flavors. My wife suggested the canned chipotles, but I struck it down. There's too many variables there. I don't want to put something in the mead that will screw it all up.

@Double_D: Sorry, I must have been unclear. I am looking for that kind of spicy and smoky taste that you get from the canned chipotles in adobo. But, I'm not sure if that is possible...

I've made some jalapeno and habanero liquers before, and they turned out great. I'm just not sure if I can get what I am looking for as far as the smoky profile.

bobbrews said:

steep in the hot mead (pre-alcohol development.

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How hot are you making your must and why?

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Another way you can impart a smokiness to any mead is to age it on some toasted oak cubes, you could try peppers and oak cubes in secondary, let it age and do tastings and then rack off of them when it reaches the spice and smokiness you are looking for.

@TheBrewingMedic: Just to be clear, the mead is already finished fermentation. I will not be heating it up for the pepper. I will rehydrate it in water before adding it to the mead, though. I discussed the oak idea with my wife. I think I am going to see how it imparts its flavors with a different batch before I throw it in this one. I think its probably the best option though.

Would any medium toasted oak cubes work? Or, do you have a specific one in mind?

TheBrewingMedic said:

How hot are you making your must and why?

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I haven't made mead yet, suffice to say, I didn't even know what the equivalent of "wort" was called for mead. Thank you for that. I assume that mead is probably 100 F at it's hottest? Steeping the chiles at that temperature for a specific time is probably still better than adding them to a cold secondary. Rehydrated chiles aren't exactly as fragrant as hops or honey, but they are very flavorful.

The reason I commented on this is because I'm a professional chef, and being that my focus is Latin cuisine, I use a lot of dried chiles. The procedure I gave is how we infuse chile flavor in our soups, specifically Sopa Azteca. For mead, I would probably steep the dried, toasted chiles in the warm to hot "must" ...(instead of hot water before adding to a soup). The steep we do with our soup rinses any leftover debris and rehydrates the chiles, which are then boiled in the soup, and finally blended. I would skip a few steps there, chop up the toasted chiles and add to a steeping bag, rehydrate in the warm must, allow flavor to infuse, rack, and skip the final blending of the rehydrated chiles. Does this make sense in terms of using a similar technique for infusing chile flavor in mead?

tauschung said:

@TheBrewingMedic: Just to be clear, the mead is already finished fermentation. I will not be heating it up for the pepper. I will rehydrate it in water before adding it to the mead, though. I discussed the oak idea with my wife. I think I am going to see how it imparts its flavors with a different batch before I throw it in this one. I think its probably the best option though.

Would any medium toasted oak cubes work? Or, do you have a specific one in mind?

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I like the medium toasted American oak cubes. you can also use chips, but I perfer the cubes because of their shape they have different level of toasting on them so you get a little more depth, they are also easier to deal with than wood chips. I used them in an acerglyn recently and everyone who has tasted it has commented how nice the smokiness is in it.

@bobbrews: I agree. In an ideal world, I would steep the peppers in the heated must to get the most oomph from the pepper. But, at this point I do not want to risk oxidation or just plain screwing up the mead. So, I think that a good compromise is rehydrating the pepper in water and racking on top of it. It will do more than just throwing in a fresh pepper and cold steeping it.

@The BrewingMedic: Cool. I have some french cubes that I bought for a vanilla methelgin. If those don't seem quite right for the job, I'll look into those American cubes.

I had read in Schramm's book that cubes are the ideal medium because they have a more consistent flavor that they impart as compared to chips.

I agree. Good luck on this. I'd be curious to taste a good chile mead that isn't overbearing with smokiness.

bobbrews said:

I didn't even know what the equivalent of "wort" was called for mead. Thank you for that.

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You're welcome

bobbrews said:

I assume that mead is probably 100 F at it's hottest?

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100*F is the high limit almost. As a professional chef you're probably used to making reductions to intensify flavors. Honey works a little different, at higher temps you can acheive caramelization (as in a bochet type mead) however you sacrafice the volitile compounds that give whatever varietal you are using it's character.

Honey is the real expense when it comes to making mead, and just like anything in the culinary world, better ingredients make a better product. So if you are going to spend a few extra dollars on a delicious single source varietal or even if you come across a great tasting local raw wildflower or clover or whatever is indigenous to your area, you'll want to maintain the flavor and aroma of that honey. All mead varieties, with the exception of a bochet can be made with no heat, it may take a little extra elbow grease and a few more minutes to incorporate the honey and water but in the end it is worth it.

bobbrews said:

Steeping the chiles at that temperature for a specific time is probably still better than adding them to a cold secondary. Rehydrated chiles aren't exactly as fragrant as hops or honey, but they are very flavorful........................................................................................................... For mead, I would probably steep the dried, toasted chiles in the warm to hot "must" ...(instead of hot water before adding to a soup). ........................................................................................................... I would skip a few steps there, chop up the toasted chiles and add to a steeping bag, rehydrate in the warm must, allow flavor to infuse, rack, and skip the final blending of the rehydrated chiles. Does this make sense in terms of using a similar technique for infusing chile flavor in mead?

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Possibly a way to still make an infusion of decent flavor out of your base mead instead of water, and without heating all of your must and chance losing any of the honey character, would be to make your full batch of mead and let it go through primary fermentation. When it is ready to be racked into secondary, take a small portion, say 10-20% of the fermented mead and use that to make the infusion, yes it'll lose some of the honey flavor and aroma and yes the alcohol will evaporate off while heating it but you will be able to make quality infusion.

Then cool and add it to your secondary vessel, rack the remaining mead onto it so it all mixes and incorporates well.

This will help you maintain the integrity of the honey in your mead and give you the cleanest chile flavor since none of that will be lost during primary fermentation. You'll get the best of both and end up with a nice capsicumel (fancy name for mead flavored with chile peppers)

The only other thing I might suggest is possibly adding only a portion of the infusion at a time, I know that contradicts what I said before about adding it to secondary then racking your mead onto it, but if you add it in increments you can taste inbetween and balance the sweet with the heat better, keep in mind the chile flavor will intensify slightly during aging so if you added it until it is right at the edge of perfect, like a splash away, in a few months it should hit the marks exactly where you want it.

TheBrewingMedic said:

Possibly a way to still make an infusion of decent flavor out of your base mead instead of water, and without heating all of your must and chance losing any of the honey character, would be to make your full batch of mead and let it go through primary fermentation. When it is ready to be racked into secondary, take a small portion, say 10-20% of the fermented mead and use that to make the infusion, yes it'll lose some of the honey flavor and aroma and yes the alcohol will evaporate off while heating it but you will be able to make quality infusion.

The only other thing I might suggest is possibly adding only a portion of the infusion at a time, I know that contradicts what I said before about adding it to secondary then racking your mead onto it, but if you add it in increments you can taste in between and balance the sweet with the heat better, keep in mind the chile flavor will intensify slightly during aging so if you added it until it is right at the edge of perfect, like a splash away, in a few months it should hit the marks exactly where you want it.

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I like that. It's a sort of "tempering" of flavor using a little at a time to make it right. You're using a little bit of the hot must instead of heating up the whole batch. Kind of like adding hot cream to whipped egg yolks to make a creme anglaise, being careful not to curdle the yolks by adding too much hot cream too fast (and thus ruining the lot of it).

I wonder what a drop or two of "Liquid smoke" would add?

bobbrews said:

I like that. It's a sort of "tempering" of flavor using a little at a time to make it right. You're using a little bit of the hot must instead of heating up the whole batch. Kind of like adding hot cream to whipped egg yolks to make a creme anglaise, being careful not to curdle the yolks by adding too much hot cream too fast (and thus ruining the lot of it).

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EEExxxxactly....I've made a couple batches of mead that I wished I had a lighter hand on some of the additions. Which is partly the reason that every batch (thats not a cyser, bochet, or acerglyn) starts as a traditional in primary. For one there is finally some documented proof that adding fruits to secondary provides better color, flavor, and aroma transfer (there is a thread with a podcast about the experiment), and two I can adjust and control the amount of the flavoring I am adding in a state that is closer to what the final product will taste like.

I have even gone so far as to start using a smaller secondary fermenter ie: 4 gallon primary and 3 gallon secondary. That way I have a gallon of the original base mead untouched for topping off, and making adjustments if I want to thin out a flavor, with out diluting with water and changing the alcohol content and flavor profile completely. And if I don't need to do any of the above, I have a few extra bottles of nice traditional mead in the cellar.

roadymi said:

I wonder what a drop or two of "Liquid smoke" would add?

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Interesting idea, probably worth doing some scaled down experiments with it, that stuff can be pretty potent and nasty if get too much in anything. I learned that the hard way once when the little plastic cap came off the top and I poured teaspoons worth instead of a few drops into a marinade.....

I don't know why you would bother rehydrating chili peppers. What's the point?

huesmann said:

I don't know why you would bother rehydrating chili peppers. What's the point?

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If you wanted to do a small batch infusion with a portion of must/mead to be more precise with the addition maybe?

But I still don't see the point. If you add a hydrated pepper you still have the same amount of "hot stuff" as if you just throw in a dried pepper, unless you only throw in the wet pepper and toss the hydration fluid.

Not sure why but its not letting me delete a double post..

Why do people make vanilla extract instead of throwing in a whole vanilla bean? That's the same idea that is being talked about here, using a small amount of mead to make a chili pepper extract or infusion, a concentrate, which can then be used to precisely control the heat level.

Actually could be a cool experiment, make a higher gravity dry traditional, like 18%+, let it clear, splitting it into pints and seeing how making potent "extracts" with various things like cinnamon, vanilla, chilies, other herbs and spices come out, Give them a good long soak.

Would only need a gallon batch a case of pint mason jars and time.

But that is not rehydration. That's extraction.

I've had very good results with just throwing the dehydrated pepper directly in the secondary. I've made an ancho chile mead this way that turned out very good as well as a smoked chipotle porter where I used "morita" chiles.

WRT liquid smoke: There are different flavors of smoke. Someone mentioned using oak chips but that imparts oak flavor and not really smoke flavor (IMHO). Liquid smoke can be had in hickory and mesquite, the latter might be more appropriate with the peppers, although I'd defer to the chef here.

If I had a show mead I was proud of, and I wanted to add this flavor, I'd make sure it was the best flavor I could get: Use mesquite (or whatever is appropriate) and smoke the peppers yourself.

Penderys sells all kinds of ground chiles, including ground chipotles and smoked paparika as well as a hundred others. If adding whole chiles does a good job wouldnt the powders do it better? Would it be better to add in the primary so it you get the water soluble portion out and then let stay untilthe fermentation is over? WVMJ

tauschung said:

I'm going to split up my 5 gallons of show mead I made a year ago. One of them is going to be my Bobby Flay mead, or Pomegranate capsicumel.

My question, is, how would I impart a smoky spicy flavor into the mead? I loooove those cans of chipotle peppers packaged in adobo. And, I think that it would marry great with pomegranate.

I highly doubt that charring some chipotle peppers would get the flavor that I'm looking for. And, I don't have a smoker or grill.. Or should I just give up on my idea and throw in a dehydrated ancho pepper and see how that works out?

Oh, and if anyone is interested the 5 gallons will be split: show mead, rosemary, vanilla/oak, hibiscus, bobby flay.

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You could also try with smoked malts.

I have some leftover Cherrywood Smoked Malt from an experiment in beer. So, in order to use it up, I'm going to modify one of Ken Schramm's recipes in the Compleat Mead Maker and substitute with some of the smoked malt.

The beer I made had an "ok" flavor with a kind of bacony aftertaste. Definitely made me think of BBQ.

Smoke the honey. I built a smoker in my yard with an old garbage can and a old BBQ grate. Get a small hot fire burning in the middle, add some soaked chips and hot smoke something( chicken, veggies, steak, etc) then when it cools down, and its nice and cool and still smoking pretty good, put your honey in a ceramic casorole dish with the top open and smoke it to the desired level.

Although I would just smoke the peppers, but honey could be an interesting experiment