07/25/10 Jalapeno Mead (Capsicumel)

I read about Capsicumel (don't ask me how to pronounce it) on the home brew talk forums here:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/habanero-capsicumel-60272/

Being someone who likes some spicy food every now and again I decided that this would be next on the list of things to try. It also didn't help that I had bought too much clover honey for the JAOM... So I picked up some more and made this on the same day.

The poster had made his with habaneros and thought that it came out too hot in the end. Not wanting to kill myself on my first try I decided to go with a safer chile, the jalapeno. I would have made another 4.5L batch, but I didn't have the right size of jug on hand and only had around 1.2kg of honey so I went with a 4L batch.

Jalapeno Capsicumel
1 jalapeno cut into quarters (in order to fit into the jug) with the seeds and pith removed.
1.2kg clover honey
4-5L of spring water
Muntons Preminum Gold Active Brew yeast (I used the rest of the pack from the ginger beer, may have been a bad idea but we'll see)
1 tsp yeast nutrient

I boiled 3L of water, removed the pot from heat and let the it cool a little. Then I mixed the honey in making sure to keep stirring until it had dissolved just in case the bottom of the pot was too hot. I chilled the must down before placing it into the jug and topping off with fresh water. Took a gravity reading (1.068) and then tossed in the jalapeno. I left the cap off for 24 hours to allow the yeast some oxygen for breeding and then realized that I forgot to add the yeast nutrient. Which I tossed in right before capping, the must went crazy and it was lucky that it stopped before overflowing.

I tried giving this a taste tonight, I was interested in how it turned out and wanted to see how far the gravity had come along. I had read somewhere that fermentation should be done around two weeks and sought to confirm. I was disappointed with the gravity reading of 1.045, since the fermentation had quieted down I believed that it would be a lot lower. I don't believe that it's stuck or anything, just slow. Perhaps it's the munton's yeast, I tried looking on their web site for the alcohol tolerance and suggested temperature ranges and got nothing. I think that I'm going to stick with Lalvin yeasts from now on.

Also, only two more blog posts and then I'm caught up! Yay!