05/02/2011 JOAM and Jalapeno (Capsicumel) update

 OK, so it's been a while since I've posted anything here. Brewing slowed down during the winter as the room in the basement that I was using was also the furnace room. Which means that it was a pretty much a constant 25 degrees Celsius. And that is way too hot for a lot of the things that I was making at the time. So until the summer when the AC is on I've managed to find some space in a closet in the basement, it is a lot cooler than the furnace room, 20 degrees Celsius or so. And has allowed me to continue brewing small batches of cider and mead.
For the first post this year I'm going to talk about the Joe's Ancient Orange (JOAM) and Jalapeno (Capsicumel) meads that I made last July. I left them in primary until about October, I didn't have anything smaller to rack them into and wasn't really sure how to proceed. This was when I noticed that they appeared to have cleared and decided to bottle them. Which wasn't the greatest idea, they ended up clearing a little more and dropping some lees in the bottles. The current mead that I have going I'll be sure to rack it at least once and give it as much time as it needs to clear before bottling to avoid this. For eye candy the image at the top of the page is from today (JOAM on the right and Jalapeno on the left), and the images at the bottom of the page (JOAM, Jalapeno) are how they looked at the time of bottling. Looking at the images I don't really know how I thought that they had cleared all the way...
Now onto the good stuff, I got four 750ml bottles and two grolsch 500ml bottles of the Joe's Ancient Orange mead and three 750ml bottles and two grolsch 500ml bottles of the Jalapeno mead. I used the grolsch bottles as tasters so that I didn't need to open and waste an entire bottle in the event that the mead wasn't ready to be drank.
All four of the grolsch bottles are now gone, the first two went sometime in January and the other two in mid April. As for the tasting notes, the JOAM has a nose that contains some of the orange, clove, and cinnamon that it was brewed with. It tastes similar to the nose but is still hot and burns just a little on the way down. If or when the honey starts to come through it should get a whole lot better. Since I only have the 750ml bottles left I'm going to try and save at least one for the two year mark to see what it is like then.
The Jalapeno mead has a very peppery nose with a very peppery taste. The last time that I had some I was able to detect just a hint of honey coming through. With any luck the change in taste will continue and make it a little more likable for me. At least that's what I'm hoping, I'm a little disappointed with this one. I wanted something that had a bit of a zing to it, but it currently only tastes of pepper with no zing at all. Which isn't a bad thing if you really like peppers like my one friend, he really likes it and has asked that a I brew another batch for when this one runs out. I might try that batch with a habenero in an attempt to kick up the heat a little bit more.
Oh, and we can't forget the ABV. The JOAM had an SG 1.076 of and a FG of 1.008 making it 8.9% ABV. And the Jalapeno had a SG 1.068 of and a FG of 0.996 making it 9.5% ABV.

Brewing Update - 09/05/10

Apfelwein
The Apfelwein has cleared and I've racked it into another 4.5L jug. Which may cause problems because it was only 4.2L to begin with and with two gravity readings taken it really should be in a smaller jug. But I don't have anything to put it in at the current point in time >.<
The FG is .998 which gives it an ABV of 7.6% or so and since it finished dry is very tart. I'm hoping that once it ages a bit this will fade. If it does I can see myself liking this very much. I'm going to see about getting some smaller jugs and maybe putting in some potassium metabisulfate to preserve it as it ages.

Basic Mead
I brought this upstairs for a few days to see about kicking the yeast into action with a little more heat. It showed signs of renewed fermentation and I tossed into a few raisins in hopes of further coaxing the yeast into doing their job. After some rearranging in the basement it is now sitting in a slightly warmer closet. This should allow it to fully ferment and be out of sight so I should be able to leave it alone until it finishes.

Jalapeno Mead
The newest gravity reading is 1.018, which means that it's dropped .018 in the last two weeks. Gave it a taste and its still really really jalapenoy, I would really like it if aging this mead brings out the heat and reduces the jalapenoy taste. I'll check it again next week and if its 1.010 or below I'll try cold crashing and racking into a smaller jug. (At least if I have any) 

JAOM
It appears that the fermentation has more or less stopped on this one. And some of the orange peel has started to sink to the bottom,  with any luck it will clear by the end of the month. I'm hoping that this turns out well, as it stands the other two meads are disappointments.

Ginger Beer
Still tasting good, it seems that the sugar has lessened some and the ginger has come to the front. Of course that could be because the yeast is still active and carbing the bottles. I had two explode last Sunday breaking the bottom of the PET bottles it is in. Good thing that it was in the basement :P Next time I'm thinking a little more ginger, a little less sugar and a sharp eye to make sure that none blow.

Brewing update - 08/22/10

Apfelwein
I've been reading a lot about cider of late and decided that I needed to give this a taste. It still has a fair amount of krausen on top and is very cloudy. The nose was fairly strong with the scent of alcohol with a hint of apple in the back. The taste was bitter/tart upfront with an overly bitter/tart finish, not undrinkable but something that would need to be paced. The funny thing was that after I had taken a sample the krausen started to dissipate. Which I thought may have been due to either the k-meta that I used to sanitize the baster or opening it up. But when I went back down 15 minutes later it was back where it was before the sample. 

Basic Mead
Has an unpleasant medicine nose that's just as bad if not worse then it was before, tastes rather sweet and fuzzy with a sour and unpleasant after taste. Somewhat disappointed with how it's come along. I may have made a mistake and stressed the yeast or it could be the yeast itself. So far I haven't been too impressed with the EC-1118 and hope that the Afpelwein turns out ok.

Jalapeno Mead
Took a gravity reading and did a taste. The gravity had fallen down to 1.036 from the 1.045 it was on the 13th, hopefully it will keep fermenting. I'll try and not touch it for two weeks and then give it another test. As for the taste, it had a peppery nose that didn't really appeal to me. If I try this again I'll look for a pepper that smells good on it's own instead of the jalapeno. It was very sweet with a cloying mouth feel with a jalapeno after taste and no heat at all. So far this has been a disappointment, but I'm hoping to catch it somewhere in the 1.002 – 1.010 range and cold crash it and bottle. Maybe some time in the bottle will improve it.

JAOM
I didn't touch this at all as per the instructions... perhaps that's what I need to stop playing with things. Recipes that say walk away after installing the air lock. The bubbling has slowed down a bit over the last few days and some of the orange zest has started to fall. Only a month to go on the 25th, so I'm hoping that it will start to clear soon.

Ginger Beer
This is one of the few things that has turned out nice. I chilled a couple of bottles and took it over to a friends place for some testing last night. It's fairly sweet with a nice ginger taste and nose, And it's not zingy like some of the commercial brands that I've tried, but it's refreshing none the less. I opened one today to get a gravity reading and it fizzed up all over the place. It seems that the yeasties did a good job carbing it. I did notice quite the difference from it being chilled though, it was a lot sweeter (almost cloying) and was really really carbed. As for the gravity it was still at 1.044... which would mean that it didn't fall at all in the bottles. So I have not idea what the abv would be it there is any at all. I suppose that I'll have to try one on an empty stomach to see if there is any alcohol it in or not o_O.

Mead updates and such

I've learned that mead is something you need to be willing to forget about and then come back to in 6 months or so. Over the past few days I've taken gravity tests of both the basic and jalapeno meads, the basic seems to be stuck at 1.030 and the jalapeno was only down to 1.045. If I hadn't messed with the basic by racking it I'm sure that it would have kept going. Next time I'm in the LHBS I'll see about picking up some of the same yeast and re-pitching.

As for the jalapeno, I wrote up some tasting notes. (even though I don't really know what I'm doing with tasting...). It had a mild jalapeno nose with a slight jalapeno taste and a rather sweet and cloying mouth feel. I'm hoping that with age the jalapenoness will recede and lend the mead a hotter mouth feel and taste.

Also, I've resolved not to touch any of the meads (except for adding more yeast to the basic) until they clear. Whenever that may be. 

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!