Cherry Chipotle wine- If Peter Picked a Peck...

[OrchardRoad]

How many peppers would Peter use in his Cherry Chipotle wine? I made a fantastic cherry wine- 1/3 black cherries & concentrate, 2/3 tart cherry juice. It's so cherry it hurts. Obviously I've named it Cherry Cherry and I think Neil Diamond would approve because she's definitely got the way to move me! I'm pulling 3 gallons from the 6 gallons I have and want to make it chipotle cherry but I have no idea how many dried chipotle peppers to use. I plan to rough chop and put it in a real small hops bag whatever the quantity and let it roll for a week or two. I've only played with peppers once before and ended up with a mango passionfruit jalapeno habanero. The fresh jalapeno (10 for 3gallons) provided little heat and lots of green veggie flavor so I back it up with some dangerous habanero vodka my husband's cousin made. Like a half cup for the 3 gallons which lit it up perfectly. I can't believe she gave that stuff to me expecting me to make Bloody Marys- maybe she's trying to kill me. I digress. I have no experience with dried chili peppers and wine and my last experience was...variable. Any input would be greatly appreciated on suggested quantities of chipotles as well as my husband's cousin's intent.

 

[G259]

Two thumbs up, I have wanted to try this as well. I was thinking Serrano peppers (thinner, same length as a Jalapeno), They are hotter, just not tongue slapp'in hot! I think that I would use fresh peppers, because they are available.

 

[BigDaveK]

Cherry chipotle sounds great! I'm a pepperhead and hope to incorporate some of my harvest into wine this year.

My first thought is to perform some kind of extended bench test, small sealed containers with varying amounts of pepper. Tea bags would work in a small container. That would certainly remove some of the prayer, finger-crossing and guesswork.

Interesting fact about jalapenos: they can have different amounts of "heat" even coming from the same plant. Pointy tip jalapenos are hotter than rounded tip. Sounds crazy but it's true.

And, yes, your husband's cousin is most definitely trying to kill you. What did you do to encourage such attention?