# Redhots



## wineon4

Anyone ever make an apple wine with redhots candy in the secondary?


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## Runningwolf

Never heard of anyone doing it but I think it sure sounds like an awesome blend.


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## wineon4

Going to make a 1 gallon test batch today, along with a 1 gallon test of Pineapple and a 1 gallon test of Orange. If my wife and I like them I will do 5 gallon of each. I will keep the post updated.


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## wineon4

Made a 5 gallon batch today

5 Gallon walmart apple juice
2 each 6.5 oz boxes of Redhots
Red Star yeast 
Pectic enzyme
acid blend
7 lb sugar

Starting SG of 1.08

also started 1 gal Pineapple, and 1 gallon orange


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## Tom_S

My brother made what he called "Apple Pie Wine" using nothing but apple juice, Everclear, and redhots. Just mix the juice & Everclear together, then throw the redhots in and wait for them to dissolve.

I made a better version by fermenting apple juice with cinnamon and nutmeg in it.


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## wineon4

It took 48 hours for the ferment to start. Noticed this morning that the primary was starting to give off some gas and bubbles. Smells great and has a nice red color. I will post some photos when it is in the carboy. The orange and the pineapple boiled over last night, woke up to airlocks full of juice.


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## wineon4

This batch is ready for stabilizing and clearing. It smells great and tastes even better nice flavor from the Redhots candy and just a little hot bite from them. Can't wait to drink some.


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## grapeman

This sounds like it may be good. When I first read this when you first started the thread, I thought- Why would anyone put hot dogs in a wine. Funny how words have different meanings from one place to another. Red Hots are a type of hot dogs, sometimes with a meat sauce on them like a chilidog.


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## GreginND

oooh, Chili Dog Wine. Now you're talking!


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## wineon4

Wine is clear and stable. Tastes great, almost like a Reisling. The redhots give a burn on the back but on the front it reminds me of a Reisling.


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## cohenhouse77

You gonna age it, or drink it young?


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## cohenhouse77

Also, did you put the red hots directly in the primary, or on a straining bag? Did you have any debris from them, or did they completely dissolve?


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## wineon4

I start to drink even before I bottle, but I do age some of every batch I bottle. After I get down to around 10 bottles left of a batch my wife puts her *Special Reserve* on it and I am no longer allowed to open any or give any away without her expressed permission LOL. 

I put 2 boxes of Redhot candy in the primary and they stayed on the bottom, I stired each day until I racked to the secondary and they were still whole except for the Red color have disolved into the wine. After about 2 weeks I racked again and they had completely disolved but left a goo on the bottom which I discarded in the racking. The wine started out to be a light red color but now that it has finished it is the color of a white table wine and extremely clear and brite.

Just a note the first couple days there was an oil film on the top in the primary must have been from the cinnamon oil in the candy. This prevented the start of fermentation to the point I started another yeast in water with energizer, sugar, and nutrient until it was working well then added it to the primary and it took off the next day.

Plan to bottle this evening and may drink a couple glasses with diner.


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## cohenhouse77

I started my batch this evening. I am making 6 gallons. After tasting the apple juice, I decided to tweak the recipe a bit and add 4 green granny smiths, very tart, to add a sour element and some fresh fruit pulp to help the yeast get started. I also up'd the red hots to three boxes. Depending on flavor, I may add more as it progresses. Also, I added the red hots in a nylon straining bag so I had control of them and could steep them through the process.

I am so excited! I love red hots!


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## cohenhouse77

36 ounces of red hots all dissolved in 4 hours flat. Also raised my SG .2! I guess I added too much enzyme!!!


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## wineon4

We have been drinking this for a couple days now, it is great. I am at my hunting camp since this is the last weekend of Pa deer season and I will serve it with diner tonight, the gang in camp are in for a treat.


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## wineon4

Update, This has a great Redhot candy flavor and goes well for Christmas. I served some to my family at our family Christmas card exchange party on Sunday and it was a hit. Can't wait until it ages and then really get into it. House77 how is yours doing?


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## g8keeper

hey guys....could help but notice, and have a little suggestion for next time, and will probably yield a red color wine as well....instead of using red hots, next time you might want to consider using "fire" flavored jolly ranchers.....make like a double boiler system, adding a tad bit of water in with the candies, and heat on the stove....they liquify and will leave no oily residue, unlike with the red hots....just a suggestion though, seeing as how i have used this method to create my flavorings for my alcohol base, or water wine, so to speak, in order to create my own version of "pucker'd".....


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## cohenhouse77

It is fantastically doing it's thing in secondary and smelling great. It is also quite red, though it has plenty of clearing to do, and I used three times the red hots you did. I will be looking for a strong cinnamon flavor and was thinking of back sweetening with apple concentrate soaked in Three Alarm Hot Tamales. This of course won't happen until fall next year so I have plenty of time to experiment.


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## wineon4

cohenhouse77 said:


> It is fantastically doing it's thing in secondary and smelling great. It is also quite red, though it has plenty of clearing to do, and I used three times the red hots you did. I will be looking for a strong cinnamon flavor and was thinking of back sweetening with apple concentrate soaked in Three Alarm Hot Tamales. This of course won't happen until fall next year so I have plenty of time to experiment.



cohenhouse, How is the redhot apple? Tastes great I bet. I only have 6 bottles left. I just started a new batch, still in the primary.


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## cohenhouse77

It is still clearing along with my regular apple. I was planning on bulk aging it along anyway but I think it is due for a racking and perhaps some clearing agent in the next couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted!


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## cohenhouse77

I racked and back sweetened last night. I'm trying to decide how I want to bottle it. It has a great red color. It tastes like......red hots! It is wonderful if you like that warm cinnamon flavor. Good times! I will make this one again.


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## winointraining

Gonna go get the stuff for this in the am. this sounds so good.


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## wineon4

My wife wanted this that is how I created it. My second batch is now aging and it is tasting good. I did as you did cohen i added more redhots and the second batch has a little more sting in the back. I love the color and aroma of this wine. Wino, you will enjoy it for sure. I am thinking of adding mulling spice and serving some warm for my annual fall corn roast at my hunting camp.


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## wineforfun

What kind of yeast did you all use? All I saw was Red Star and not which one.


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## wineon4

Red Star Cuvee


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## wineforfun

Thank you.


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## wineforfun

Got it going over the weekend. So far, so good. I too put the redhots in a straining bag and they were dissolved in only a few hours. This has an awesome smell too it.
Did you guys use Sparkloid, etc. when racking to clear or just let it sit and clear on its own?


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## wineon4

I used Bentonite from the start. Cleared nicely in about a month while in the secondary. This wine tastes great. I opened a bottle and took it down to my neighbor's front porch on Friday evening, was a big hit.


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## cohenhouse77

Sparkalloid worked great. Aging does wonders though.


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## wineforfun

Racked at 1.020 Been sitting for two weeks so far. I may rack it off the lees this weekend and then let it sit for a month or two. Depending how I feel, may add Sparkloid to add clearing. Was thinking about adding a few more red hots to each carboy (will be racking to two one gallon carboys) to bump up the "hotness". Will keep everyone posted. Thanks for all the help so far.


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## wineon4

Second batch is in the bottle and now in my wine racks. Tastes great. I just picked up 6 gallon of Apple juice for another batch.


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## wineforfun

What are you backsweetening with, sugar or apple concentrate or?


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## wineon4

I make a simple syrup of 1 cup water and 2 cups sugar boil until the sugar is inverted then cool before you backsweeten. I then add until I have a SG of 1.005 which is a semi sweet wine, my wife likes wine on the sweet side. I prefer fruit wine to be around 1.002, but anywhere from 1.002 up to 1.005 works for me unless I want a dry wine at .990, if my wife wants a dessert wine I will bump up to 1.01


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## wineforfun

OK, thanks. I have never done the simple syrup/boil thing. I usually just put straight sugar in and stir it up. But then again I am only messing with 1 gal. carboys. I usually make 2 gal. batches and tweak one of the carboys to try something different.


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## Noontime

This is extremely intriguing, although I don't like the idea of using the red hot candies (binders, chemicals, etc). Does anyone have an opinion on making an apple cinnamon wine and adding capsaicin for the heat? Do you think that would taste like a red hot? It's been decades since I've had one, so I'm having a hard time imagining what it tastes like. The apple base I find interesting...any reason this was chosen?

Thanks!


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## wineforfun

For me, I like the apple/cinnamon flavor in general so it was appealing to me. Mine is still aging so I can't give a "yea" or "nay" on it yet. I did add some more redhots to the carboys, that it is aging in, to give it a little more bite. I am hoping the apple flavor comes out. I will give it a month or two, then backsweeten and bottle. When racking it over this last time, it didn't have alot of taste to it but I am hoping it is just young and needs some sugar to pull them out.

wineon4 and cohenhouse77 can give much more insight to this recipe, etc.


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## wineon4

My wife loves Redhot candies and ask how to make a wine from them. Cinnamon goes well with apple so I tried it and it came out great. Batch 3 is in the primary now. wineforfun the backsweeetning brings it all together. I tasted mine when it was dry and oh yeah YUCK. We love this wine, drinking a glass now


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## saramc

Noontime said:


> This is extremely intriguing, although I don't like the idea of using the red hot candies (binders, chemicals, etc). Does anyone have an opinion on making an apple cinnamon wine and adding capsaicin for the heat? Do you think that would taste like a red hot?
> 
> Thanks!



Capsaicin, that is pepper derived is it not? What about simply using a good cinnamon oil? Do you recall the hot cinnamon toothpicks? I bought cinnamon oil from Olive Nation, since people use it to make those toothpicks, added it in secondary to a 6% cider to establish a cinnamon base and then actually added different number of drops as I bottled the cider which was sweetened back up with AJC. Taste trials still in progress, but they've all been great. I used McCormick's cinnamon extract in another batch and it was not the taste I wanted, though the cinnamon oil brought the cinnamon flavor and heat of a good cinnamon candy.

I like the use of the cinnamon oil above and beyond my batch made from Atomic Fireballs...they have both been great batches but I'd much rather eat the jawbreakers.


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## wineforfun

wineon4 said:


> My wife loves Redhot candies and ask how to make a wine from them. Cinnamon goes well with apple so I tried it and it came out great. Batch 3 is in the primary now. wineforfun the backsweeetning brings it all together. I tasted mine when it was dry and oh yeah YUCK. We love this wine, drinking a glass now



Awesome, I was hoping the backsweetening would help as I was afraid it would be very lacking on the apple part of the flavor.

I did add more redhots when racking over this last time. Just put them in the 1 gal. carboys and they had dissolved within 4-5 hours.


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## Noontime

So does the cinnamon oil add a significant heat?

I've never made anything like this so it's all conjecture on my part. I'm just going by a ginger beer I made a few years ago. Ginger is quite spicy, but no matter how much I added I could not get any heat like I had in commercial ginger beers. I later found out they add capsaicin to get the heat. It is derived from peppers, but does not have any flavor...just HOT, HOT, HOT.


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## saramc

Noontime said:


> So does the cinnamon oil add a significant heat?
> 
> I've never made anything like this so it's all conjecture on my part. I'm just going by a ginger beer I made a few years ago. Ginger is quite spicy, but no matter how much I added I could not get any heat like I had in commercial ginger beers. I later found out they add capsaicin to get the heat. It is derived from peppers, but does not have any flavor...just HOT, HOT, HOT.



I think if you are after heat then peppers may be more appropriate; but I definitely get hot on the finish with cinnamon oil, and it is not alcohol heat. It does not burn or irritate, but makes you go "hmmm, I want more of that" (an actual feedback comment someone gave it). But, I am a wimp when it comes to spicy stuff but this provides the cinnamon oomph I wanted.


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## wineforfun

Bottled this up last weekend. Ran one batch to 1.010 and the other to 1.014 (on the backsweetening). Both tasted pretty good so I am hoping some time in the bottles does even more for it.


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## Noontime

Thanks for the update D.J. I look forward to hearing how it comes out...especially at those SGs. We're fooling around with our first sweet wines so we're just starting to figure out what the higher SGs taste like. So few people follow up with posts about the finished wine (I'm guilty of it as well), so it's great to see updates and it is appreciated.


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## wineforfun

David,
I will post back in a month or two on this one. Will let it sit that long and see what happens. My wife likes sweet wine so I make these for her. I will have a glass here and there but not much into the real sweet wines. Like my dry reds.

I agree on the follow ups. I try to write back on the ones I make to give my .02 on them.


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## wineforfun

Just opened a bottle of the 1.014. Tastes really good. Not a real predominant apple flavor but fairly sweet with a "bite" of cinammon on the back end. I am not a sweet wine drinker so I only sampled it but my wife really liked it. She is the sweet wine drinker. 
In one of the glasses she drank, I put 1 red hot in the bottom of the glass and I guess that added some extra cinammon flavor to it when she reached the bottom of the glass.
It also gave it an extra "orangey" color.


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## joemansfield

Hey I was wondering what my acid or ph levels ahold be to get a good flavor out of my apple cider I'm doing. I have it all together in my primary now going to add yeast today but I'm new to this. Would really appreciate some tips


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## Arne

wineforfun said:


> Just opened a bottle of the 1.014. Tastes really good. Not a real predominant apple flavor but fairly sweet with a "bite" of cinammon on the back end. I am not a sweet wine drinker so I only sampled it but my wife really liked it. She is the sweet wine drinker.
> In one of the glasses she drank, I put 1 red hot in the bottom of the glass and I guess that added some extra cinammon flavor to it when she reached the bottom of the glass.
> It also gave it an extra "orangey" color.


 
DJ,
Last night I opened the bottle of this that you gave me. Think I was expecting it to be a bit hotter at the first taste. It had a great red hot oder, the first taste was more appley (is that a word?) with just a touch of the heat at the end. Not sure it was a touch of heat or the red hot flavor. Anyway, it was very good. Have about a glass left, will finish it tonight. Thanks for the bottle. Arne.


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## wineforfun

Sounds good. You described it about exactly as I do. It is a little sweet for me but my wife really likes it. The "heat" at the end is the red hots. She likes to put 1 red hot in her glass with the wine. Gives it a little more cinammon-like flavor especially toward the bottom of the glass.
Glad you liked it.


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## wineon4

I have to try it with a Redhot in the glass, my wife will like that I think since it was her idea to make this wine because she loves Redhots. Going to try that tonight.


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## compdoctor

Can someone post a full recipe of this? I am interested in trying a batch myself.


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## compdoctor

I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled across this and got interested. Can someone please post or send me the complete recipe that was used? Please help.


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## wineforfun

Wow, forgot all about this wine.
Let me grab my notes from home tonight and will post my recipe/results tomorrow. 
I remember it turned out well. We used to put one red hot in the glass while drinking the wine to bump up the cinnamon flavor.


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## Mismost

not wine but had five gallons of mehhhhh cider, just not much flavor. So I dropped a hand full in a gallon jug. Went from mehhh to wow...spicy, warm, sweeter, actually brought out the
apple flavor. the red hot dissolved really quick. Was good warmed or cold. But, I have not fermented red hots.


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## compdoctor

wineforfun said:


> Wow, forgot all about this wine.
> Let me grab my notes from home tonight and will post my recipe/results tomorrow.
> I remember it turned out well. We used to put one red hot in the glass while drinking the wine to bump up the cinnamon flavor.



I appreciate it. I'm always looking for something new to try.


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## wineforfun

@compdoctor 
I was pretty new to things when making this. Just started making wine 7 months earlier. Don't know that I would change much about it.
This is based off of a 2 gal. batch. Notes below are just as written in my journal. Not sure why I didn't add nutrient or if I forgot to write it down. If I make this again, I will add it in.

May 30, 2013
2 gal. HyVee 100% apple juice, no sugar added
7 oz. red hots (put in a mesh bag)
1 tsp. pectic enzyme
2 tsp. acid blend
4 1/2c sugar
SG 1.085
* red hots were completely dissolved 4hrs. after putting in primary

May 31
added Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast

June 3
SG 1.050

June 5
SG 1.020

June 22
Racked to 2 - 1 gal. carboys. 
1 carboy I added 10 red hots to
1 carboy I had to top up with HyVee 100% apple juice and added 10 red hots

July 13
SG .993
Added 1/2 tsp sorbate and 1/8tsp kmeta to each carboy

Added 1c sugar to "non-apple juice added" carboy from June 22, made SG 1.014
Added 3/4c to "apple juice added" carboy from June 22, made SG 1.010

August 31
Opened bottle of 1.014. Taste pretty good. Not much apple flavor but nice cinnamon on back end. Fairly sweet.

November 7
Opened bottle of 1.010. Tastes good. Little apple flavor with smooth cinnamon finish. We put 2 red hots in glass with wine.
Would make this wine again.


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