Cap and Cork

I started both the braggot and the wine on the same evening, and you can read my previous post regarding the Jalapeno wine beginnings.  I just wanted to followup with some notes on both of these fermentations as they are so completely different, that, well…  It’s interesting.

The braggot recipe was created using BeerTools, which I find damn near invaluable.  I wanted about 6% ABV for a one gallon batch using honey and malt only.  I knew I was also looking for around 30 IBU’s from the hops.  Using their free calculator, I was able to tweak until I got what I wanted.  Let me say that my boil removed more water than I had thought, but after topping up, my SG was 1.06 and was exactly what I predicted it to be.  I waited until cool and pitched some Danstar Nottingham yeast.  As of last night, my gravity was just a hair under 1.02 so we were well on our way.  Like my normal beers, I decided to move the bragoot into a secondary and let it finish out under an airlock, which I predict should be about 1.01 or so.  Once I bottle, I will add some pics and the recipe to the recipe links page.  Be sure to check it out…

And then there’s the Jalapeno Wine.  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom…”  Wisdom indeed.  It seems my wine simply did not want to begin fermenting.  Looking back, I should have skipped the campden tablet as there was definately some preservative on the raisins.  I think was just enough to put up a wall.  I waited another day and pitched the remaining 1/2 packet of champagne yeast.  Lo and behold, 2 days later, you could see some bubbles and hear audible fermentation.  No cap or foam, but definately some bubbles.  I’m gonna let it ride and see what happens.  I should have more peppers to pick from my garden in about 2 weeks if I can’t salvage this batch.  Here’s raising a glass to hoping!