I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. I would’ve never thought to add chilies to mead but folks that have made chili mead (known as capsicumel) speak highly of it. We’ll see how it tastes in six months.

Recipe
3.25 lbs of farm fresh honey
2.5 litres of spring water
3 jalapeño chilies seeded & cut in sixths
1 tsp DAP (yeast nutrient)
1 tsp yeast energizer
1 package of Lalvin D47 yeast

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First I sanitized everything including the uncut jalapeños.

The honey had crystallized so I heated it for 2 minutes in the microwave and added 500ml of boiled spring water. Shook it up until it was all dissolved.

I poured the honey water into the glass jug and added the cut & seeded jalapeños.

While that was going on I had two sanitized glasses filled with warm spring water. In one I added the yeast nutrient and energizer. In the other I added the yeast. I let them sit for 15 minutes.

I added the yeast nutrient & energizer mixture and took a hydrometer reading: 1.132. Then I stirred and added the activated yeast.

I shook the jug for a solid 5 minutes to oxygenate the mixture well.

I added enough water to leave about 10-15cm of head space and capped it with an airlock.

I’m using a brown jug so I don’t have to wrap it in a towel to protect it from sunlight. In about a week I’ll likely move it into a clear secondary.