Yeah, still in MD. I haven't looked for it in a while, but the last time I bought it it was like $25 for 2lbs I think. Walmart sells a 5lb jug of wildflower for $12, so for me it was 4x the cost. It made an awesome mead, and $26-ish for 4 bottles isn't awful, but I've been making the same amount for around $7/batch. I give about half of each batch away, and I hate people, so giving away $3-4 of mead instead of $12-13 just sits better with me.
The yeast they recommended, and that I bought to use, is a wine yeast - Lalvin D47. The carboy is a typical skinny neck with a little handle jug style.
Okay, they didn't give as bad of advice as I originally thought. D47 is a 14% tolerance, so you should get a semi-sweet mead. I haven't used it before though, so I don't know how active it will be. You should be fine filling it to just where the carboy starts to curve in. It will be less than a gallon, but it shouldn't make enough of a difference for you to adjust the recipe. Worst case it's slightly sweeter than you originally planned and you can adapt next time. Keep an eye on it the first couple days for blow-offs. If that happens, clean and refill the airlock with sanitizer water or vodka and put it back in.
My ciders in the 1 gallon when I fill to where a normal carboy starts curving I can fill twelve 12 oz grolsch bottles (the swing top bottles. Growlers). I'm probably actually getting 10-11 ounces in each so I'm not losing much. Now to figure out what to do. I have Wyeast 4021 Dry White / Sparkling Wine Yeast (17% tolerance) another packet of Safcider yeast (up to 11%) some Lalvin EC-118 (18%) some Lalvin 71B-1122 White Labs WLP715 Champagne yeast (17%) also some pasteur blanc and cote de blancs yeast Pasteur Blanc is all purpose and vigorous, a moderately foaming and sulfite tolerant strain useful in producing white wines. AKA UCD #595. An all purpose and vigorous, moderately foaming and sulfite tolerant strain useful in producing white wines. This strain leaves behind a pleasant yeasty flavor. This strain is not used in producing sparkling wines. Whites. Temperature range: 59-86 F. Alcohol Tolerance: 13-15%, but can exceed 16% with a healthy ferment. An excellent choice for fruit wines, especially apple. If fermented at cooler temperatures it will not ferment to dryness producing a sweeter wine with some residual sugar. AKA Geisenheim Epernay. A low foaming slower speed fermenter with low alcohol tolerance. This strain emphasizes fruit character in both reds and whites making it an excellent choice for fruit wines, especially apple. If fermented at cooler temperatures it will not ferment to dryness producing a sweeter wine with some residual sugar. For the production of Chardonnay use in conjunction with yeast nutrient. Sweet whites, fruit wines. Temperature range: 64-86 F. Alcohol Tolerance: 12-14%. also have a pink lady juice, goldrush juice and some black cherry apple juice (well non alcoholic ciders) and at least 2 lbs of orange blossom honey. also maple syrup. and caramel sauce. and cane sugar. I clearly do not have enough yeast. Oh and I can 5 lb jars of clover honey for $13. a pound of orange blossom would be $15 at most. But I have seen it for $8. in Harris Teeter. Ciders, I want to try mead and I want to try tea wine (basically it's make the tea put a ton of sugar in it carboy and yeast and let it go. But you need a strong tea. I know Thai tea works. I think english or Irish would as well. But Thai you can steep for half an hour.) Oh the 3 juices are in Half Gallon Carboys (the skinny neck small handle type).
I've made a few tea wines. I have several hibiscus blends (hibiscus, apple pieces, rose hips, insert fruit flavor here) that I steep with about a quart Ziploc bag of mint. Then I have a lemon spearmint loose tea that ends up tasting like sweet iced tea when it's done fermenting. I also started a test batch with some Valentine's tea the fiance has. Raspberry and cocoa nibs and such.
The plan is to test with jalapeno, then scale up to habanero and move on to ghosts eventually. I have friends in town who grow their own ghosts and reapers, so I'll have a fresh supply whenever I get to that stage.
I like the flavor of ghosts more than the capsaicin content, they have a tart sweetness to them that I find appealing with my burn XD
If this doesn't suck, my base version will probably be habanero and I'll never make the jalapeno version again. Jalapenos are just inferior to habaneros in every way.
Cool, thank you for the tips! I haven't started my batch yet, but I hope to soon. I still have to pick up the honey, and I should maybe re-pick up the yeast because the pack has been sitting in the fridge for about 3 months now.
Also agreed, although I do like the flavor when jalapenos ripen into chipotle peppers. A chipotle mead could be interesting.
I'd try it before buying more. I've been using lalvin yeast that's been in the fridge close to a year. As long as it has been in the fridge, it should be just fine. I'll probably give that a try as well. If it turns out okay, I might try smoking some too.
A mesquite honey with chipotle peppers might make a good mead. Though I can't recall ever seeing mesquite honey.
Neither have I. Apparently my fiance knows someone who keeps bees though, so maybe I can snag some fresh local stuff.
could be mistakenly talking about jalepenos that are fully riped (most if not all peppers go from green to yellow to orange to red to purple. Yep any green pepper is an unripe pepper). Because I think chipotles (well the most common ones) are smoked purple jalepenos.
apparently true, they are typically vine ripened whereas most are picked green and ripened (or not) at the market, chipotles are smoke dried though, so leaving them on the vine helps them to dry out more before they're smoked, it would seem.
