Chilli mead

Ok next is chilli mead,,, I'm thinking habanero ! Any suggestions

Nah...habanero is for wusses....

Naga. You know you want to......

Seriously though, search for capsimel. Both here and over at Gotmead. You should find plenty of guidance and ideas......

Naga ! No way!

I have some yellow 7 pots and bhut jolokias the flavor on the 7 pots is amazing, but you only have half a second to enjoy before the fire hits.

I am undecided, I wants a kick but not something I can't enjoy ,,,,

Then habaneros will do for you.

add some cayenne pepper powder as well. That will give you more heat, instead of just bite.

Naga is also fine, especially if you de-seed and make sure that you remove all the umbilical (white connecting tissue to the seeds). Don't be such a "girly".... it's only chilli

equally, if you want to control the heat a bit more then habaneros will work fine, but with the same caveat as above.

as for Descender's idea.... ? hum ? yes, that sounds good too.

If I go for the habanero just how hot will it be, I am assuming that a gallon DJ will dilute the heat? I am aiming for a winter drink to hit the spot,
It also looks like I will have to order chilli from Internet as I can't source locally,,,?
Is this am easy mead to accomplish !?

Taste the habaneros. Some are super hot, some less. Depends a lot on type, soil, moisture and weather. My chocolate habaneros are HOT but I had done yellows last year that were pretty mild.

Add to your mead and test every day or so. If you are really worried about heat, use jalapeños. I made a cherry chipotle mead that used 12 dried smoked jalapeños, and its just pleasantly warm. They were left in there for 7 days.

For chili meads, are you gents aiming for a sweeter mead to balance the spice or have dry meads worked as well?

How many habanero for 1 gallon and is dried ok to use?

vetusstimulus said:

How many habanero for 1 gallon and is dried ok to use?

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And I was thinking of using lalvin ex 1118

I would try one, deseeded if you arnt going for really hot. If its not warm enough, add another. Maybe a more precise way, take some vodka and pour over a handful of habeneros, let steep for at least a month, then add by the spoonful until its where you want it.

Dried is fine.

I don't like ec1118 at all for mead, pretty much any other yeast is better, that one is just too agressive for the more subtle aromatics of the honey.

Thank you,

Would u use a dark or light honey???

I realy want to capture the taste of the chilli

FWIW, it's not so much the seeds that are hot, it's the fibrous bits.

Anyway, for my capiscumel I think I used 4 small orange habaneros per gallon, just sliced in half, no removing anything. It came out pretty spicy, but it also finished pretty sweet. I'd have to check my log to be sure.

People who drink it for the first time take a sip say, "oh, it's pretty sweet," and then about 3 seconds later they say, "oh wow!" as the heat catches up to them.

Ok tonight I put my hab mead together....

I have honey, yeast, habs , spring water, at the ready...

Anyone wanna help me out with some tips?

Hmmmm check this pic.... It's the only other airlock I have... I don't think it's meant for initial fermentation... What u guys think. Can I use it for new brew or put it on my cherry mead 1 wk old???? I have turned my house inside out looking for a baloon

Done!

The "S" bend trap is an airlock, the other stopper isn't. It's a "safety bung" for allowing gas release when there's atomspheric changes that encourage gaseous release and prevent build up of pressure in an already finished batch.

What's the difference ? the safety bung is designed to allow the one way exhaust of tiny amounts/levels of CO2 build up. The airlocks are designed for allowing the exhaust of much higher levels of CO2 i.e. the kind of quantities found during fermentation.

You'd be better placed by using a kiddies rubber balloon, that's had a few pin holes put in it, or even a piece of cling wrap and elastic band for the moment.

If you get some rubber/cork/silicone bungs that have been pre-drilled to take an airlock, then you can also use tubing that has one end in the stopper and the other end in a glass or bottle of water (that method is known as a "blow off tube").

If the valving in the safety bung gets blocked by a piece of fruit pulp forced into it by pressure, then there's the possibility of pressure build up, which eventually forces out the bung and is often accompanied by a mead eruption. It can be quite an explosive event and would likely splatter the ceiling above the DJ with mead and pulp........

I used the safety bung for my cherry but I am collecting some balloons tonight... I hope it holds till then....

The habs mead is just starting to bubble in the airlock,,,,, interesting smell to those chillis, I tried a sample of the water from the rehydration process,,,, was tea coloured,,, was also bloody nice,,, and HOT!!!!

Wish this stuff took less time to bru lol,,, I'm hoping to turn it around by Xmas....

Ok so a few days on and I only have movement in the airlock if I give it a gentle shake... There are tiny bubbles in the DJ but most of the little particles that where swirling around have disappeared....
Is this a slow burner or do I need to interfere ? Everything else I have some has bubbles in the airlock like crazy, could it be the 1118 yeast?

vetusstimulus said:

Ok so a few days on and I only have movement in the airlock if I give it a gentle shake... There are tiny bubbles in the DJ but most of the little particles that where swirling around have disappeared....
Is this a slow burner or do I need to interfere ? Everything else I have some has bubbles in the airlock like crazy, could it be the 1118 yeast?

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A gravity test will tell you where its at and another in 3 or 4 days will confirm whether is either still dropping, stuck or finished. ....

My hab mead is now in its secondary and I am confident of the whole process so far, grav readings etc,

But....

I had a cheeky taste and its hot yes, but a bit nasty in taste. It's not clear yet but I gather this will come with age..... Will the taste improve with clarity,,,and age? I am hoping to have a decent clear hot and tasty drink for the coming Christmas.

vetusstimulus said:

My hab mead is now in its secondary and I am confident of the whole process so far, grav readings etc,

But....

I had a cheeky taste and its hot yes, but a bit nasty in taste. It's not clear yet but I gather this will come with age..... Will the taste improve with clarity,,,and age? I am hoping to have a decent clear hot and tasty drink for the coming Christmas.

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See my comment re young meads on your cherry mead thread.

It may be drinkable by crimbo just with ageing, but it might need a bit of help too....

Chilli is mad stuff. Some of the mask materials can make it more manageable. Sweet, salt and citrus juices can all help. People don't usually do the right thing if its too hot. Capsaicin (the hot bit) is a fatty alkaloid, so that's why any mouth burn is best approached with lumps of butter, whole milk or normal fat level yoghurt, or a glass of spirits.

Lager just does the "oil on water" spread....as does water.

Now I'd suggest just stabilising the batch if you haven't already done so, then take a gravity reading, then mix 1oz of honey with the sample mead (presuming you use a testing jar/tube with your hydrometer), then gently stir the honey mead mix back into the main body. Give it a couple of hours to settle then take a new hydrometer reading. Repeat as necessary until you reach a sweetness level you like.....

If you went a bit far and got it too sweet, a little lime juice takes the edge off the sweetness but also goes well with chilli......

p.s. where (roughly) are you ? It helps to have an idea to recommend any local resources that we might know of.....

Bluespark, those chocolate habs are so nice, we dried a bunch and ground them up into powder, a very pretty dangerous brown powder. Its over 8 years old and still will do a face burn. We grew some Nagas but the whole plants smelled like kerosene so we didnt even bother to eat one, just dried them and gave them away to friends that told us they could eat anything hot, they never came back.

As a Chilehead I have to get you guys to use the right terms here so you dont embarras yourselves talking about this.

Chili is a meal made with chiles, other spices and meat. A chile is the hot pepper. If you make chili mead I suggest straining out the meat pieces

Yes, where are you posting from, you guys might have some other interesting chiles we havent tried over here?

WVMJ

I am Liverpool uk

WVMJ said:

-----snip-----
Yes, where are you posting from, you guys might have some other interesting chiles we havent tried over here?

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No but you do get an excellent range of stuff, or stuff you can find for easy mail order Jack.

Plus there's always new variations being produced and sold.....

There's a bloke who's making various types of preserves about 20 miles up the road from me. An imaginative range of jams, jellies, chutneys and other pickled type relishes. He does a good "chilli chutney". Not because it's just chilli, but he makes it with curry spices as well, so you get a decent amount of chilli burn but also the marvellous roundness of stuff like turmeric, corriander, cumin and some others. It's good stuff, but he's not been going that long, maybe 2 to 4 years, so I only see his stuff at local markets etc (pretty sure he's got a web presence, but I'm buggered if I can find it at the moment).

Apologies for the hijack.......

vetusstimulus said:

I am Liverpool uk

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{edit}..... changed this bit as I was getting my places muddled...... I have used the place in Chesterfield (he's got a branch in Liverpool too), but also had good service from this place in Stockport. Or t'other side o' Pennines, there's always Karl (a.k.a. duffbeer over at winesathome), who's got 2 HBS, ones Pontefract/Knottingley way, the other is Hull I believe (he did used to do some discount for forum members, dunno if he still does). {/edit}

You're a bit far north to use the honey supplier down this way. Their varietals range isn't as good as a lot of the US based ones but the prices are ok(ish) but you'd get screwed with the shipping/postage.......

Still probably handy to know if you're down this way at any time.......

There are a few places who stock the "usual suspects" from Lalvin i.e. yeasts, but I've yet to find any FermaidK over here. A suitable local equivalent is Tronozymol, and if you want to boost your nitrogen a bit, pure DAP that you'll see mentioned isn't so easy but Youngs yeast nutrient is easily located and is DAP and another ingredient (dunno if the other ingredient is just and anti-caking thing or a different nitrogen source). So you can do the staggered nutrient regimes suggested etc.......

Ha ha my dad is a bee keeper so honey not too much a problem....

vetusstimulus said:

Ha ha my dad is a bee keeper so honey not too much a problem....

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Outstanding.......

Don't forget, raw, unfiltered. Wax, dead bees, propylis etc all come out in the making (during racking etc).

Half the hot peppers in the world have been found by some Brit foraging around in some unknown jungle looking for the right pepper to add to his curry Very cool you dad is a beekeeper, I hope you have had time to spend with him helping out. Have you tried a whole hive mead yet, just crush up the comb into a bucket, add some nutrient and yeast and let it rip, a few larva and extra bits dont matter. We got one going now and the first week it smelled like flowers, very interesting. WVMJ

fatbloke said:

No but you do get an excellent range of stuff, or stuff you can find for easy mail order Jack.

Plus there's always new variations being produced and sold.....

There's a bloke who's making various types of preserves about 20 miles up the road from me. An imaginative range of jams, jellies, chutneys and other pickled type relishes. He does a good "chilli chutney". Not because it's just chilli, but he makes it with curry spices as well, so you get a decent amount of chilli burn but also the marvellous roundness of stuff like turmeric, corriander, cumin and some others. It's good stuff, but he's not been going that long, maybe 2 to 4 years, so I only see his stuff at local markets etc (pretty sure he's got a web presence, but I'm buggered if I can find it at the moment).

Apologies for the hijack.......

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i tried chili mead at wacken viking marked... had a scolvile reading of 400 000.. now that **** was hot.. and tasty.. but only in small portions