Cooking wines

the threads on cooking wines have peaked my interest. I've recently started a jalapeno cooking wine and was wondering what everyone's thoughts were regarding finished sweetness in their wines? I might have to give garlic wine a try too, maybe add some ginger for stir fry sauces and such.....

You might find this interesting: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/garlic-wine-78224/

I was just reading that thread, I like Kahuna's pork idea.

I like to leave my cooking wines dry, so they're just imparting flavor. This gives me more flexibility then as to how I add sweetness (juice, various sugars, etC).

You might also find some useful recipes here: winemaking: requested recipes (Maraschino-Chocolate Sweet Mead) Don't know why the cherry always comes up 1st, just scroll down for a list of recipes. Regards, GF.

I was finally brave enough to try my jalapeno wine tonight, that's some tasty stuff! :rockin:

it's a pretty strange experience, I only had a sip which yielded a beautiful jalapeno flavour followed by a rather delayed, "HOT! oh my god, it's HOT!"

Hi,
I have made several different Jalapeno wines.
I've made it with 15 jalapeno's to the gallon, no seeds, it makes a most awesome drinking wine. EVERY single person I've offered it to has declined at first at the thought of drining jalapeno wine. I've managed to talk every one of them to at least try it, and every one of them has wanted to take the bottle with them on their way out the door! I made mine a bit on the dry side, a beautiful white wine which is very smooth with a pleasant warm aftertaste.
The 5 gallon carboy which I have going right now was the product of my year end garden cleanup last fall.....153 jalapenos, complete with seeds, it again goes down very smooth but OMG the heat that hits you afterwards! Great for cooking or deer camp! lol If you love heat this is the wine for you!
Good luck, take care...
Cathy

Now that is a brew that gets my attention zoo. I've got a gallon of pepper mead with two habaneros and two saranos and I was a bit worried about heat, but damn I'd love to try your concoction.

As would I MyZooTwo, could you post little more info about the recipe?

I basically followed the same recipe for both the jalapeno wines, the only real difference was that there were 15 peppers without seeds per gallon of the sipping wine, appoximately 31 peppers complete with seeds per gallon for the 'liquid fire' batch. I based my recipe on Jack Keller's recipe with a few modifications.

For one gallon:
Jalapenos, chopped, be careful if you are wearing rubber gloves, if some gets in there you will feed it all day, irregarless of how many times you wash your hands to try to get rid of the burn
1 box of golden rasins, chopped
2 pounds of sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. each of acid blend and yeast nutrient
1 crushed campden tablet
Pasteur Red yeast
water to a gallon

Wash and take the stems off of your jalapenos, chop them up until they are in real small pieces but not mush. You might want to use a blender for it, I probably should have
Chop your rasins, put the rasins and peppers in a straining bag.
Put your sugar, water and remaining ingredients in your primary except your yeast, stir and place your straining bag in there.
I made a yeast starter the next day and slowly poured it on top.
Stir daily for a week more or less, I think I waited a few extra days with the second batch.
When you are ready to put it in your carboy gently squeeze your straining bag out over your primary.
Rack twice, 60 days apart, and use a crushed campden again a few days before you are ready to bottle.

That mixed pepper mead sounds very nice, I might have to try planting a few different types of peppers this spring. Let me know how it works out. If you were over on this side of the state we would have to tell you to grab your wine theif and head over for a try. We are probably going to bottle the hot batch in a few days, it looks nice and clear and no settlings for a few weeks.

Oh when it gets bottled, or perhaps after some aging, I'll start a thread about the capsicumel. It should be pretty hot, and at an estimated 18% it's going to need some serious aging. Keep us updated on the liquid fire, any chance of seeing some pictures of either of the two?

The color of the wine is much lighter than it appears, I think the brown walls behind it doesn't help. I'll uncork a bottle of the sipping wine later today and get a photo of it in the glass to show the color much better. That is Rusty and Buster in next to the carboy keeping guard over the wine.

Nice security force, I assume the cage can't stop them from attacking brew thieves.

Oh Rusty and Buster would sell us out for a bite of your dinner!
Here is the sipping wine, thought I'd get a photo of it with a familiar background.

Sorry, wrong photo, lets try this again

I was pondering a jalapeno wine using tomato juice as a base, maybe with some garlic in it. I have heard that tomato makes a nice wine, and what would complement it better than jalapeno (except maybe basil). What are your thoughts?

We have made tomato before, have a 1 gallon secondary of it going right now. Makes a beautiful golden wine, we make it on the sweet side, it is awesome. I think the basil sounds wonderful with the tomato, makes me want to try sweet basil and tomato next summer once the tomatos start to go crazy in the garden. I could use a glass of it right now to get a taste of the summer garden to help ease the winter by!
Good luck and let me know what you try, you have got my wheels turning for next summer.
Take care...
Cathy

Cathy, how did your jalapeno wines compare heatwise? mine is seriously too hot to use as a libation, what would you say deseeding cut the heat by?

thanks!

I'm not sure the exact percentage of the heat that is caused by the seeds, but I'd have to say it's a fairly high percentage. The wine we have made with the seeds has twice the jalapenos as the wine we have made without the seeds, but it seems to have 10x the heat as the other. If you have ever taken a single seed and bit into it you learn to respect the seeds! lol It makes a huge difference in the afterburn.