Okay,
@luis costa, here you go...maybe more than you expected.
I can tell you what I did and offer some tips but ultimately you’re the wine maker and you have to make decisions. But that’s a good thing – take notes on everything including the taste at each step. If the end result isn’t quite what you wanted then look at your notes, make changes, start another batch!
Chances are the pepper wine you tried was jalapeno, the most common. To me the flavor is “uncomplicated” so I no longer grow it. If that’s your choice, though, I will tell you that pointy jalapenos have more heat than rounded tip jalapenos, even coming from the same plant. Crazy but true.
Pepper wines are just like any other country wine – the variations are almost endless – and making a wine that you love may take a couple attempts. I just started my eighth pepper wine using almost the identical procedure for each one. The only variable affecting the final taste was the variety of pepper used. That was my intention – to explore pepper flavors.
Peppers - taste your peppers! Like any other wine main ingredient, if there’s little flavor then don’t bother, use something else. Seriously. Flavor will
never ever magically appear.
In many peppers the seeds and membrane can be hot and even
very bitter. I wanted flavor so I removed both. A hot pepper will still be hot with or without the seeds. And this is important – like lacto fermentation to preserve peppers (which I do), I noticed the wine fermentation seems to intensify the perception of heat also. I’m a pepperhead so the heat really appeals to me.
I treated my peppers as a fruit, freezing them first.
The Corbaci pepper has zero heat so I used 2 lbs. All the others have varying degrees of heat, which I ignored, and used a little over half a lb of each, 250 grams. (Yeah, I mix pounds and grams.)
Preparation – I chopped the peppers and simmered for a couple of minutes,
not boiled, to soften them up and hopefully extract more color. To help a little with mouthfeel I also used 150 grams of
chopped raisins which were added to the simmering peppers. (I may use more raisins next year, haven’t decided yet. Use what you want!) By simmering these ingredients there’s no need to use k-meta at this phase – the heat will kill everything. And peppers
do have antifungal properties - which might affect fermentation - and heating neutralizes that quality. BTW, to help with mouthfeel I also used 71B yeast which produces a decent amount of glycerol. Also, when this had cooled to around 100 F I added pectic enzyme, mostly to break down the cells even more but peppers do have a bit of pectin, some more than others. Very HOT water will destroy the enzymes (so don't add too soon!) but I wanted them to work at least a couple hours before adding the yeast.
Note – I ferment WITH the peppers. Some recipes strain them out.
My recipe (1 gal):
Peppers (as prepped above)
Raisins (as prepped above)
Sugar (SG to approx. 1.090 +/-, 2 1/2 lbs or so)
Acid blend (2 tsp to 2 ¾ tsp, pH to 3.5ish. Some peppers interestingly needed more acid.)
Nutrient (1 tsp)
Pectic enzyme (1/2 tsp, see above)
Water (about 5 qts, slightly oversized to assure at least a gallon after secondary)
Yeast 71B
Everything into primary, towel covered. When the SG is around 1.020 I strained with a brew bag into another bucket and then transfer to the secondary fermentation vessel with airlock. Depending on the amount, I use a gallon jug and a quart jar or half gallon jar, also with airlocks. When fermentation stops I put a crushed Campden tablet in a clean gallon jug and rack from the two containers. Regular bulk aging protocol from there on.
I must say that some of my peppers have made incredibly complex tasting wines and I'll make them again. Others are good but the flavors are "simple" and I probably won't make them again.
If I missed something or if you have a question, you know where to find me.
Hope this helps. Good luck! Tell us how it works out!
