misc Making Mead

R

reverendsterlin

I have been a Mead Master for several years. Besides just loving to drink it and having numerous friends that demand some, I find it a way to be artistic. Currently for the second time in to years I have a batch of habanero mead working. The first batch went over very well at a Mead Gatherum in Colorado last August. It is a sack (sweet) mead that is using a yeast to create alcohol levels of about 21% (42 proof) using 2 diced habaneros for a 5 gallon batch. When I first made it I thought that when tasting it at bottling the next batch would need a couple of more peppers, nicely after bottle aging for 6 months the heat came through. Not a rip your head off hot but very noticible to the non-spicy food eaters lol. maybe sometime down the line I will make an Ice Pepper mead to burn us heat lovers. I will provide a recipe if anyone is interested, but easy enough to figure out for any home brewers.
Sterling
 
Thread moved. We have a whole section for this. :D
 
Yes, recipe details please. I've seen a few pepper wine recipes but hadn't really considered a mead.

I've got a few varieties of peppers I'll start harvesting soon and I'm looking for some ideas. I'm definitely brewing up a pepper beer. I've done a few of those over the years and they've always turned out great. A wine or mead (or both?) would be a nice complement.
 
The recipe is faily simple. This is for a 5 gallon carboy. 17 lbs of honey (If you like it sweet, and I think this one needs sweet), yeast energizer and nutrient as directed, for my first batch I used Lalvin 1118 and the second batch Wyeast Eau De Vie, 18% and 21% alcohol respectively. With good fresh and fairly large peppers I used two sliced with ribs and seeds in the primary and then transfered throughout the rackings. At bottling the mead seemed NOT very peppery, but after 6 months of bottle aging the heat had definitely made itself known. The second batch started with 2 less fresh peppers (wrinkled and shrunken but not dried) and a couple of weeks later I added a third. That batch has only been racked once so flavor is still unknown. A friend did a jalapeno mead by simply making a standard sack mead (sweet mead) and adding a jalapeno (washed well) to each bottle before corking. It was good as well but definitely had a different flavor. Thai Dragon, Thai hot, Tepin, and ghost pepper I think are all candidates for a good mead!
 
I have been a meadmaker myself, rev, and that sound very good...hmmm, now I am gonna have to plan room in the kitchen for fermenting.....that should be doable in my rehab project!
 
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