Thought I'd share...questions/comments welcome

So today I started my second batch of mead. I was going for a capsicumel that would compliment a BBQ sauce a buddy of mine makes. Here's the recipe. (It's the first mead recipe I made myself.)

10.5# Clover Honey
2# Dark Brown Sugar
1 Whole Pineapple (Diced)
3 Fresh Habaneros (Cut in half)
Purified Water to five gallons
1 Packet Lalvin D-47
5 tsp Yeast Nutrient

All ingredients were added to my primary. Taste tested the must, and it was delicious. It started with a low sweet flavor of honey, then a mellow taste like a brown-sugar pineapple glaze came through, with just a hint of spice at the end from the habs. Any comments, questions or concerns are welcome. It's only my second batch and any advice is welcomed.

Cheers,
Mike

Sounds delicious! Recipe looks good. Hope it turns out good.

Interested to hear how it goes, I've currently got an experimental capsicumrl on the go, 2 litre batch, honey to get it to 15% and half a scotch bonnet, I've heard the spice gets a lot stronger than you expect! I will be back sweetening if its needed.

I've had a few taste tests and it is starting to get a really strong alcohol taste. The pineapple taste is gone and the brownsugar is barely there. There is a moderate heat, but not too much. (I love spicy things.) I really hope some of the other flavors (pineapple, brown sugar and the fruitiness of the pepper) come back with aging. I guess if all else fails I can just backsweeten with some pineapple juice?

The flavour I would imagine will come back over time, though I recon with chilli you probably want sweetness to balance it out some. I plan on backsweetening with honey to taste once its cleared.

Oh, chillis? Very interesting Keep us updated on this.

At this moment it tastes like jet-fuel. I'm thinking I should have done a few things differently. Maybe some pineapple in the secondary, after fermentation ends...Definately some backsweetening.

What temp did you ferment at? D47 has a habit of making jet fuel when fermenting too warm, anything above 20c will do that. I've made a few batches of rocket fuel already, they need a lot of aging, back sweetening will certainly help though

It could, indeed, be as Insomniac suggests if the D47 was fermented too warm, but also, young meads have a habit of tasting bloody awful, with the "alcohol hot" taste being one of the bigger, more easily noticed ones.

The capsaicin in the chilli is a fatty alkoloid, so it's more easily extracted once the alcohol content is building up in the brew. Hence that could also be adding to the "jet fuel" sensation.....