Started a batch of Hot Pepper Wine yesterday.  Why Hot Pepper?  Well, it should be a good cooking (and sipping?) wine that can double as Christmas presents along with other wines and baked items.  My new Christmas plan is to not buy presents for most people, just give them food and wine, and what better than something spicy during the cold of winter. 

My present thoughts for Christmas gifts are:  Home made chili sauce, a good hot salsa I make for tacos and chips, a Merlot, Blueberry Wine and a Mead, date nut or banana bread, caramel corn, some type of cookie, and a few odds and ends.  A good combo I think! 

I took a few pictures of the peppers because they are quite colorful.  The last picture is out of focus and gives me a headache when I look at it, but it is just a nice red, so I included it.

You have to admit, that red is nice!

The recipe:

6 pounds 1 ounce sugar

water to 3 gallons

35 Jalapeno Peppers (3 pounds 6.5 ounces)

4 Habenaro Peppers (40 grams)

4 Mexican Red Peppers (3.8 ounces)

2 Anaheim Peppers (5 pounds, 4 ounces)

2 Poblano Peppers (forgot to weigh them)

1 pound 10 ounces Organic Raisins

3 grams Fremaid-K

4.5 teaspoons Acid Blend

3 Campden Tabs

In 12 hours:

2 teaspoon Peptic Enzyme

In 12 hours (Edit:  Pitch yeast (1116) at 5 PM today):

Yeast – probably 1116 started with with 12 grams Go-Ferm

While this is a hot wine, or at least I hope it is hot, I added other peppers for flavor.  The Mexican Red Pepper had a wonderful smell that I hope translates well to the wine.  I did buy a beautiful red bell pepper, but I really do not like bell peppers, so I left it out.  The starting SG was 1.086. 

In other wine news, I racked my Merlot today.  It is only 10 days old and an accidental taste was very pleasant.  I left it in the primary a few days longer than I intended, but I am glad I did.  The oak is really beautiful in this one so far.

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Started a batch of Strawberry-Rhubarb Wine on the 21st.  The rhubarb is from my garden, and the strawberries are from Costco.  The berries that are in the primary have not been chopped up, as they were frozen.  I cut them the next day when they were thawed, and whole strawberries make for a better picture.

The recipe is one that I found on the Internet at Jack Kellers web site, and it looked interesting and easy, so I decided to try it.  The only deviation is that I added only half of the citric acid.  I will add more later when I know the wine needs it. 

This is my ingredient list:

24 lbs. frozen strawberries

12 lbs. red rhubarb stalks

6 cup Welch’s 100% White Grape Juice frozen concentrate

Water to make 6 gallon batch (will be adjusted later)

4.5  lbs. granulated sugar

3 tsp. citric acid (more may be added later)

4.5 tsp. peptic enzyme

3/4 tsp. powdered tannin

5 crushed Campden tablet

6 tsp. yeast nutrient

1 sachet Red Star Côte des Blancs wine yeast

I pitched the yeast on the 22nd and the wine took a day to start fermenting, but it is going quite strong now.  The slow start is partially due to the temperature of the room where I ferment my wine.  I do all my fermenting in my computer room, which is usually at temperatures in the 60 – 65 degree range, a bit cool for starting a ferment.  But it started and now the house smells like strawberries and alcohol, so all must be well. 

Foaming when pressing down the cap is moderate, though fermentation is quite active.  The image on the right is the berries standing in liquid for a day to defrost.  After the berries defrosted, I cut them with a (really sharp) knife and scissors.  All went well, and much easier than doing it on a cutting board – less juice loss also.

I will transfer to a secondary on the 29th, at which time I will adjust for liquid levels as well as acid.

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