Pepper Wine - Gochugaru - I'm going for it!

[BigDaveK]

I try to make my kimchi as authentic as possible so naturally I grow the Korean gochugaru pepper. Full of flavor with moderate heat, 10,000+ scoville units. Good kimchi explodes with wonderful spicy flavor but isn't really "hot".
The gochugaru is thin skinned, normally used dry without the seeds.
As with my other pepper wines the recipe is identical except for the kind of pepper. Chopped and simmered briefly. The ferment was a bit slower than the other pepper wines.



Transferred yesterday.
Interesting color - more orangey than red.
Fruity aroma.
And a wonderful fruity taste, followed by delicious smoky pepper, and then spicy. Very spicy! I mean seriously spicy! But not enough to exclude this from being a sipping wine.
And now we wait and see where it goes.

 

[sour_grapes]

I love gochugaru....

 

[BigDaveK]

I love gochugaru....

I have more than enough for kimchi so it makes it's way into soups and chili, too. Wonderful!

I think it's sad that so many people only know grocery store peppers. Don't know what they're missing.

 

[luis costa]

I try to make my kimchi as authentic as possible so naturally I grow the Korean gochugaru pepper. Full of flavor with moderate heat, 10,000+ scoville units. Good kimchi explodes with wonderful spicy flavor but isn't really "hot".
The gochugaru is thin skinned, normally used dry without the seeds.
As with my other pepper wines the recipe is identical except for the kind of pepper. Chopped and simmered briefly. The ferment was a bit slower than the other pepper wines.

View attachment 96522 View attachment 96523

Transferred yesterday.
Interesting color - more orangey than red.
Fruity aroma.
And a wonderful fruity taste, followed by delicious smoky pepper, and then spicy. Very spicy! I mean seriously spicy! But not enough to exclude this from being a sipping wine.
And now we wait and see where it goes.

View attachment 96524

Hi along time ago someone i worked with gave a bottle of pepper wine i tried to make it again but the recipe was to vague so is there a possibility that you would share your recipe I would like to try and make pepper wine Thank you in advance Luis

 

[BigDaveK]

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!

 

[winemaker81]

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.

Emphasis mine. This point is so obvious, but is often overlooked.

Dave, your notes are excellent. This is a modern recipe for non-novice winemaker, as it's adaptable to the situation.

 

[BigDaveK]

Emphasis mine. This point is so obvious, but is often overlooked.

Dave, your notes are excellent. This is a modern recipe for non-novice winemaker, as it's adaptable to the situation.

Thank you for the compliment!
And like I say, in a couple years I might know something.

 

[winemaker81]

And like I say, in a couple years I might know something.

The voice of wisdom!

 

[BigDaveK]

Racked last week.
The gochugaru pepper really validates my decision to make many wines with different peppers.
The aroma - it smells peppery and then...it smells spicy! It smells like it's going to be hot. Definitely some volatile compounds!
The taste - pepper first, then fruity, then a spicy heat. The effect of the heat is restricted to the mouth and dissipates at a casual rate. The amount of heat is borderline - I think a non-pepperhead could drink it. Sweetening some leftover leads me to think it will make a nice cold weather sipping wine.
By comparison, the Black Hungarian didn't smell spicy/hot but the heat was considerable and felt in my mouth, throat, and chest. And it was a more complicated flavor. I have since learned there are over 20 different capsaicinoids to make our eyes water (or not) and the quantities are different in each pepper.
I think the wine is a success but I prefer the many layered complexity of the Black Hungarian. I'll continue to use the gochugaru in the kitchen but probably not in the winery.

 

[BigDaveK]

Above I said...

I'll continue to use the gochugaru in the kitchen but probably not in the winery.

Well, I WAS WRONG!
Bottled today. Over time I'm finding my pepper wines dramatically change. Those made with fresh peppers become incredibly complex. Depending on the ratios of the different capsaicins, some get hotter, some get spicier. This one is wonderfully spicy, not hot. The first sip is incredible and you can feel it down your throat and into the chest. And it's remarkably fruity, berry-like.
Dry it's very good but I think would need a food accompaniment. I back sweetened with the intent of drinking whenever.
I'll make it again!

 

[winechef]

I wonder if you tried roasting the peppers first and removing the char might reduce the bite for those that want less heat but that rich pepper flavor. in Korea driving in the country side it's great to see all b the chilis drying on the side of the roads. I'm. surprised you prefer the gochu to Chipotle or a Mexican pepper.

definitely want to experiment now. thanks for inspiring all of us

 

[BigDaveK]

I wonder if you tried roasting the peppers first and removing the char might reduce the bite for those that want less heat but that rich pepper flavor. in Korea driving in the country side it's great to see all b the chilis drying on the side of the roads. I'm. surprised you prefer the gochu to Chipotle or a Mexican pepper.

definitely want to experiment now. thanks for inspiring all of us

Peppers are amazing. The mind blowing variety would take a couple lifetimes to explore. It's too bad many people limit themselves to the mostly bland peppers in the grocery store. Since I started growing my own I've stopped planting jalapenos because to me it has a simple and basic flavor compared to others. I grow two other Mexican varieties, taviche and tecoyero, much more interesting flavor. Unfortunately my yields have been disappointing, kitchen use only, not enough for wine.