TheGreenChileMonster's 2016 Grow

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 10, 2016

Canes1 said:
How much do you cut back your plants for OW?Do you put fresh soil in too? Sorry I'm a newbie and want to save at least one each of mine for OW.

Out here can get cider juice for $5 gallon,$25 a carboy for fresh isn't bad.I made an Apple/Pom cider last year and it was great..I want to make Mead,and so does my son,but finding it reasonable is had. 2years ago my dad got 2 5gal buckets free as the farmer had to much

Yes, I cut down the plant to a stump, cut down most of the rootball, wash off the old soil, dunk the plant in a dish soap water solution, then repot with fresh soil inside.

$5 isn't too shabby at all. I'll have to hit some orchards mid September to fill up. Mead is fun to make, but it requires way more patience than beer, due to the extensive aging process necessary to make a quality product. I have just now started cracking a few bottles of mead I brewed last winter. It will taste much better this winter though, after about a year of aging in the bottle.

Bhuter said:
All of your plants look amazing! I don't know much about Pubescens, but I've heard they don't like too much heat. So it's incredible that yours are still setting pods at 90-95 degrees. Great work!

-Adam

Thanks! It really depends on the cultivar of Pubescens, whether they have a good heat tolerance or not. My plants get a half day of full sunlight, and a half day of filtered/shaded sunlight, which they seem to like a lot. We currently have 3 days in the 80's going on, but then we'll be right back in the mid 90's again for a week.

az1000 · Jul 11, 2016

Your Aji Largo pods are different from mines.
What was your seeds source?

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 11, 2016

az1000 said:
Your Aji Largo pods are different from mines.
What was your seeds source?

Pepperlover. I only had one seed out of 30+ germinate. I sent the rest of the seeds to GIP to see if he would have any luck, but none germinated for him. Most of the pods are coming out slender and elongated, but there are a few that are looking closer to a standard rounded rocoto shape. It is a very prolific plant, so that is always good!

az1000 · Jul 11, 2016

Thegreenchilemonster said:
Pepperlover. I only had one seed out of 30+ germinate. I sent the rest of the seeds to GIP to see if he would have any luck, but none germinated for him. Most of the pods are coming out slender and elongated, but there are a few that are looking closer to a standard rounded rocoto shape. It is a very prolific plant, so that is always good!

My seeds was from Semillas.
They germinate normally and I got 3-4 plants.
All pods are elogated .

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 11, 2016

az1000 said:
My seeds was from Semillas.
They germinate normally and I got 3-4 plants.
All pods are elogated .

I snapped these two pics of the plant on my way out the door to go to work this morning.

Most pods are elongated, but if you notice the one on the far right, it is the shape of a normal rocoto.

Here is a closer pic of some of the pods. They are growing about the way I would expect the aji largo to grow based on the pics I've seen.

OCD Chilehead · Jul 11, 2016

Healthy looking plants. What do you feed them with? What ever it is, it's working.

Devv · Jul 11, 2016

Nice work!

Your peppers are looking great!

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 11, 2016

OCD Chilehead said:
Healthy looking plants. What do you feed them with? What ever it is, it's working.

Thanks! Right now I'm feeding them with garden tone. I do the usual soil amendments at the beginning of the season, like manure, bone meal, etc. Also, fish emulsion at first plant out, and a sprinkle of epsom salt in the soil a couple of times a summer before watering.

Devv said:
Nice work!

Your peppers are looking great!

Thanks!

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 12, 2016

My aji amarillo are already putting off more ripe pods, so it's time to do the second part of my aji amarillo IPA. I picked two fully ripe aji amarillo, then rinsed them in water, sliced them up, then put them in a small cup full of pisco. The pisco is 40% alcohol, and I am using it for antibacterial effect before adding the peppers to the carboy. After 5 minutes completely submerged in the pisco, I strained the peppers off, then added them to the secondary fermentor. I also added one ounce of Amarillo hops, ounce of citra hops, and two ounces of mosaic hops. I racked the IPA to secondary right on top of the peppers and the hops. I'll start taking tastes of it in 5 days or so to see where the spice level is. I figure it should be good to bottle in 8-10 days. Also, I couldn't let that delicious pisco go to waste,so I whipped up a pisco sour to enjoy while cleaning my brewing equipment and watering the plants.

Sliced up peppers soaking in pisco

Secondary done, and put back in the dark fermentation room.

Ingredients for the pisco sour

Pisco sour ready to enjoy. Salud!

grantmichaels · Jul 12, 2016

Brocoli · Jul 14, 2016

Plants have a nice green to them. Have you tried using tomato-tone instead? Im curious as I've read people saying to use tomato-tone instead of garden-tone for peppers, because tomatoes and peppers are in the same family. I have a feeling it was labeled tomato-tone because at the time tomatoes were more popular, but now a days it should be called Nightshade-tone but thats just me speculating. :rolleyes:

Next year I want to try a side by side garden-tone vs tomato-tone grow to see for myself.

Your IPA sounds very good and that carboy is awesome! I have a glass one with a small neck and that small neck sucks! When I last dry hopped I got the bag stuck in the carboy and I couldnt get it out, my buddy somehow got it out by destroying the dry hop bag. If we had yours, I could of easily grabbed the bag! How much and where did you get such a wonderful contraption(if you dont mind me asking?) Also, with soaking the peppers in alcohol, arent you going to add small amounts of alcohol to the beer and inadvertently change some flavors? Aswell, in that 5 minutes, wont it still slightly change the peppers flavor? I never thought about having to decontaminate a pepper before dry hopping it, but its one of those "duh" moments you made me have, haha. I think I'd just halve the pepper, deseed, give it a swish in sani-star, rinse, then drop it in(but thats coming from an someone whose completely inexperienced in pepper brewing!)

Awesome grow and brew, keep on keepin on!

Boba Dink · Jul 14, 2016

Your plants look great!

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 15, 2016

Brocoli said:
Plants have a nice green to them. Have you tried using tomato-tone instead? Im curious as I've read people saying to use tomato-tone instead of garden-tone for peppers, because tomatoes and peppers are in the same family. I have a feeling it was labeled tomato-tone because at the time tomatoes were more popular, but now a days it should be called Nightshade-tone but thats just me speculating. Next year I want to try a side by side garden-tone vs tomato-tone grow to see for myself.

Your IPA sounds very good and that carboy is awesome! I have a glass one with a small neck and that small neck sucks! When I last dry hopped I got the bag stuck in the carboy and I couldnt get it out, my buddy somehow got it out by destroying the dry hop bag. If we had yours, I could of easily grabbed the bag! How much and where did you get such a wonderful contraption(if you dont mind me asking?) Also, with soaking the peppers in alcohol, arent you going to add small amounts of alcohol to the beer and inadvertently change some flavors? Aswell, in that 5 minutes, wont it still slightly change the peppers flavor? I never thought about having to decontaminate a pepper before dry hopping it, but its one of those "duh" moments you made me have, haha. I think I'd just halve the pepper, deseed, give it a swish in sani-star, rinse, then drop it in(but thats coming from an someone whose completely inexperienced in pepper brewing!)

Awesome grow and brew, keep on keepin on!

Thanks man, I've used tomato tone before, but I prefer garden tone honestly. I seem to get much more pods setting with the garden tone.

I got two of those 6.5 gallon carboys on sale for $55 last year. They work like a champ, and are easy to clean.

The pisco barely had a taste of peppers after a 5 minute soak. I just wanted to make sure my brew doesn't get infected. I left every part of the pepper in, including the seeds. I strained off the pisco carefully, so it won't taint the flavor of the brew. A couple of drops in 5.5 gallons of finished brew shouldn't be noticeable.

Boba Dink said:
Your plants look great!

Thanks!

grantmichaels · Jul 15, 2016

https://amzn.com/B01ANDX2RG

wide-mouth with sanitizer reservoir built-in

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 15, 2016

grantmichaels said:
https://amzn.com/B01ANDX2RG

wide-mouth with sanitizer reservoir built-in

Nice!!! The best of both worlds.

grantmichaels · Jul 15, 2016

yup ... random find the other day ...

going to use those for room temp saisons ... the glass will help buffer the temp in the afternoons ...

:cheers:

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 15, 2016

I've been loving the saisons this summer. I'm already itching to brew another one, even though I still have a batch sitting in primary. I'll probably keep tinkering with brewing with peppers this Summer, since I have so many fresh pods at my disposal.

I'm thinking a session saison style braggot with aji limo would be pretty thirst quenching for these 95+ degree days we've been having.

grantmichaels · Jul 15, 2016

Sounds good. I also enjoy saison in the Summer ... and it's Summer most all of the year here, LOL ...

stickman · Jul 16, 2016

Thegreenchilemonster said:
This is my first year growing the aji oro, but definitely not the last. It's a great producer, very heat tolerant, and just a fun plant to grow. I prune mine to keep it from getting too wide. I should have some ripe pods sometime soon, so I'll make sure to let you know how they taste.

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Interesting pic of that Pisco... who knew that they made Grappa in other places than Italy.

Thegreenchilemonster · Jul 16, 2016

stickman said:
Thanks! I appreciate it.

Interesting pic of that Pisco... who knew that they made Grappa in other places than Italy.

A friend of mine brought me that bottle back from Peru. It's supposed to be some of the best Pisco in Peru. I've only tried 10 or so different types of pisco in my life, so I don't have as refined of a pallette to tell how quality this is compared with other pisco.