Questionable recipe. Mango Habenaro.

[Groovedog]

I've helped out for quite a few years with the distillation and recipes. This is my first solo.
I just completed 4 gallons of sweet feed shine with some buttery vanilla. Ran it twice and doubled filtered. Taste pretty good.
Now, I wanted to try something off the wall.
A mango Habenaro flavor.
Now please feel free to give any and all advice.
I was going to start out with 8 to 10 pounds of cracked corn, 12 cut up mango's (or pure mango juice). As far as habaneros, I have no idea. Was thinking maybe three. Roast, skin and seed them.
And of course the yeast and sugar accordingly.
Any comments or suggestions?

[bilgriss]

Check this out viewtopic.php?f=38&t=23917

This guy used way more than you propose, and no heat followed through to the final product.
If you are looking for heat in the final product, you'll want to steep after distillation.

[Saltbush Bill]

Mind if i ask why you would double filter sweetfeed.....or filter it at all for that matter.?

[Groovedog]

It came out cloudy. It was a suggestion someone gave me to clear it up. If I was misinformed, by all means enlighten me. Like I stated before. This is my first time going solo.

[psf]

Normally people make a sweet feed for flavor. filtering removes flavor. filtering is not going to take away puking or if you went to far into your tails. A more seasoned distiller would have redistilled it before filtering.

[Deplorable]

Groovedog, when did it "come out cloudy"? Could be a sign of bad cuts.
As far as your initial question I can't help. I detest mangos and have never tried adding habenero to ferment. Them are for jam in my house.
Good on you for exploring the art of the possible. I'd encourage you to "try it and find out".
Try searching the web for distilling capsaicin?
What are you looking to get from the habenero? The heat or the flavor and aroma?

[Sailman]

I took a little rye and put some peppers in for 1/2 an hour and it turned out pretty good. If you're gonna use it for heat and put it in after distillation be careful and don't leave it too long.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Gathered this tidbit from 'ol randy marsh back in the day:

Seep a bunch of your habanero in a small jar of your spirit, and make a super concentrated hot jar. Then add it a few drops at a time to your final jar, right up to the heat and flavor of your liking. Way more control over the final product.

I would personally make a pantry dropper style mango liquor, then add the habanero elixir to the right amount .

You can still make a mango wash by itself and add the elixir to make a more clear mango habanero brandy.

[psf]

There is a sweetfeed recipe in the T&T. There's also some sugar wash recipes that you can make a more neutral spirit with. you can make the most flavorless vodka you can based on your set up. Macerate peppers in 500ml of 40% spirit to your taste, remove. Then you can add 100g of rock sugar and 250g of cut mango to that to create your mango habanero. mix occasionally. Let it sit for two months in a cool dark place. remove the mango. Let sit another month before drinking.

Edit: I type slower than shine

[The Baker]

Steep a bunch of your habanero in a small jar of your spirit, and make a super concentrated hot jar. Then add it a few drops at a time to your final jar, right up to the heat and flavor of your liking. Way more control over the final product.

Food for thought.
I made some 'chilli liqueur' a few years ago and it is still on the shelf.
Maybe I could add it (very slowly!) to (dunno, whatever).

Geoff

[Groovedog]

Normally people make a sweet feed for flavor. filtering removes flavor. filtering is not going to take away puking or if you went to far into your tails. A more seasoned distiller would have redistilled it before filtering.

Nah, didn't go too far into my tails. 15 gallon still and I stopped at 8 gallons. Going too far was my main concern. It was the cloudiness I was concerned about. At no point does it lose its flavor when filtered. It is never a bad idea to carbon filter.
Some of the finer points of this is where I could use a few pointers. I just made this still and this was its virgin run. I did do a sacrifice run.
Like I said, taste pretty damn good.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the input.

[Groovedog]

Steep a bunch of your habanero in a small jar of your spirit, and make a super concentrated hot jar. Then add it a few drops at a time to your final jar, right up to the heat and flavor of your liking. Way more control over the final product.

Food for thought.
I made some 'chilli liqueur' a few years ago and it is still on the shelf.
Maybe I could add it (very slowly!) to (dunno, whatever).

Geoff

Well, that convinced me to abandon that idea.
Just looking to try and off the wall recipe. I have a small batch of cucumber mint fermenting. Wanna give that a shot. Im old and retired. I have the time to experiment.

[Groovedog]

Groovedog, when did it "come out cloudy"? Could be a sign of bad cuts.
As far as your initial question I can't help. I detest mangos and have never tried adding habenero to ferment. Them are for jam in my house.
Good on you for exploring the art of the possible. I'd encourage you to "try it and find out".
Try searching the web for distilling capsaicin?
What are you looking to get from the habenero? The heat or the flavor and aroma?

It came out cloudy on the stripping run. Was going for flavor. I also have a small batch of cucumber mint fermenting. (Another wild hair thought of mine!!!)

[EricTheRed]

well well well - so i am not the only nut thinking about fermenting chillies of some sort.
We've got some Habenaro, and some Carolina reapers (dangerous stuff that) - and i was toying with the idea of chucking them into the ferment. Was thinking about 20 Habs and 1 reaper in a 30L oatmeal/sugar wash
Depending on taste at the end of the ferment, was thinking about adding some to the low wines after stripping for the spirit run

So, please go ahead and do your experiment - looking forward to the results!

[Saltbush Bill]

15 gallon still and I stopped at 8 gallons.

Are you collecting in jars and then tasting or just relying on the above to hope that you've made the right cut for tails.

At no point does it lose its flavor when filtered. It is never a bad idea to carbon filter.

Your the only person Ive ever seen on any forum who says you can carbon filter and not loose flavour,
If you make the right cuts there should be no reason to carbon filter.

[psf]

Like I said, taste pretty damn good.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the input.

First time I made liquor I thought it was amazing just like the majority of first time distillers. went to a friends house that I gave a jar two years ago. so happens, he hadn't drank any. we had a sip of it and it was not good.

sounds like you got it figured out though. happy distilling

[CopperFiend]

I've had the same results with distilling chilli as Bilgriss says. I added 5 scotch bonnets chopped up and ground into a kind of paste into one of my gin macerations. That amount would blow my face off and melt my eyeballs if eaten but I got absolutely no hint of it in the final distillate. I do take very tight cuts in my gins though and don't tend to go too far into the bottom end of the run so I can't comment about whether the chilli flavour/heat comes through later in the run. If you can find that out by experimenting though I'd be grateful and possibly go a bit deeper next time!

[Hillbilly Popstar]

My advice is to stop trying to concoct wild flavors at the fermentation level.

Learn to make a solid tasty spirit of your liking, whether it be rum, sugar wash, or corn/grain likker, then flavor it afterwards.

The amount of flavorings you need to get flavor to come over during distillation (if you get any flavor at all) is absurd because you can literally just steep/macerate 1/5 of those same ingredients and pull WAY more flavor out.
Plus. When things ferment, flavors change. What goes in smelling and tasting like mangos, comes out a different animal.

[CopperFiend]

My advice is to stop trying to concoct wild flavors at the fermentation level.

Learn to make a solid tasty spirit of your liking, whether it be rum, sugar wash, or corn/grain likker, then flavor it afterwards.

The amount of flavorings you need to get flavor to come over during distillation (if you get any flavor at all) is absurd because you can literally just steep/macerate 1/5 of those same ingredients and pull WAY more flavor out.
Plus. When things ferment, flavors change. What goes in smelling and tasting like mangos, comes out a different animal.

That last sentence is exactly why this hobby is a beautiful one! You can put something that smells like puke (a proper dirty dunder pit rum) and have it come out tasting and smelling of lovely bananas! Who knows what will happen, that's the fun of it.

[Hillbilly Popstar]

My advice is to stop trying to concoct wild flavors at the fermentation level.

Learn to make a solid tasty spirit of your liking, whether it be rum, sugar wash, or corn/grain likker, then flavor it afterwards.

The amount of flavorings you need to get flavor to come over during distillation (if you get any flavor at all) is absurd because you can literally just steep/macerate 1/5 of those same ingredients and pull WAY more flavor out.
Plus. When things ferment, flavors change. What goes in smelling and tasting like mangos, comes out a different animal.

That last sentence is exactly why this hobby is a beautiful one! You can put something that smells like puke (a proper dirty dunder pit rum) and have it come out tasting and smelling of lovely bananas! Who knows what will happen, that's the fun of it.

I agree 100%. It's just important that we manage our expectations. If what we want is a deep and rich habanero/mango flavor, we shouldn't expect to achieve it with mangos or habaneros in the ferment.

[Groovedog]

15 gallon still and I stopped at 8 gallons.

Are you collecting in jars and then tasting or just relying on the above to hope that you've made the right cut for tails.

At no point does it lose its flavor when filtered. It is never a bad idea to carbon filter.

Your the only person Ive ever seen on any forum who says you can carbon filter and not loose flavour,
If you make the right cuts there should be no reason to carbon filter.

I haven't lost flavor on this and according to my uncle, he hasn't either. He is the one who suggested it.
Im making cuts by the quart. I'm planning on blending some of the cuts. That's where I get a little lost at.

[Groovedog]

My advice is to stop trying to concoct wild flavors at the fermentation level.

Learn to make a solid tasty spirit of your liking, whether it be rum, sugar wash, or corn/grain likker, then flavor it afterwards.

The amount of flavorings you need to get flavor to come over during distillation (if you get any flavor at all) is absurd because you can literally just steep/macerate 1/5 of those same ingredients and pull WAY more flavor out.
Plus. When things ferment, flavors change. What goes in smelling and tasting like mangos, comes out a different animal.

That last sentence is exactly why this hobby is a beautiful one! You can put something that smells like puke (a proper dirty dunder pit rum) and have it come out tasting and smelling of lovely bananas! Who knows what will happen, that's the fun of it.

I agree 100%. It's just important that we manage our expectations. If what we want is a deep and rich habanero/mango flavor, we shouldn't expect to achieve it with mangos or habaneros in the ferment.

Yes sir, I agree with you. I also have a small 5 gallon still that I've been piddling around with. Thats where I wanna try out new things. My sons are offering suggestions.

Like I said, taste pretty damn good.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the input.

First time I made liquor I thought it was amazing just like the majority of first time distillers. went to a friends house that I gave a jar two years ago. so happens, he hadn't drank any. we had a sip of it and it was not good.

sounds like you got it figured out though. happy distilling

This is my first time doing it by myself.
My dad and uncle started showing me the ropes in the late 70's. Ive been part of it must of the time except when work took me away. The last time was around 2008. My dad, uncles and granddad made shine and I learned what I know from them. I know that doesn't make me and expert. Thats why I'm on this forum. I've never done this by myself. My memory aint what it use to be. I had a few friends taste this batch They seem to have enjoyed it. Blending is going to be my weakest point right now. I have quire a few questions but, I'll address them one at a time. Do I consider myself a novice? Yeah I do!!! I know what my family has taught me. Know I need to add and take away from what I learned so I can pass it one to my boys.

[Groovedog]

My advice is to stop trying to concoct wild flavors at the fermentation level.

Learn to make a solid tasty spirit of your liking, whether it be rum, sugar wash, or corn/grain likker, then flavor it afterwards.

The amount of flavorings you need to get flavor to come over during distillation (if you get any flavor at all) is absurd because you can literally just steep/macerate 1/5 of those same ingredients and pull WAY more flavor out.
Plus. When things ferment, flavors change. What goes in smelling and tasting like mangos, comes out a different animal.

That last sentence is exactly why this hobby is a beautiful one! You can put something that smells like puke (a proper dirty dunder pit rum) and have it come out tasting and smelling of lovely bananas! Who knows what will happen, that's the fun of it.

I agree 100%. It's just important that we manage our expectations. If what we want is a deep and rich habanero/mango flavor, we shouldn't expect to achieve it with mangos or habaneros in the ferment.

Im just playing around with the smaller still trying new things. I put a serious effort into the bigger still.

[jonnys_spirit]

Habanero/Mango sounds good as a flambé reduction kind of thing!

Cheers,
-j

[opus345]

Groovedog,

Your on a good combination with Mango and Habanero. I've made a number of Capsicumel, Mango Habanero, and Mango Habanero Pineapple meads that have turned out delicious. I'm still green, but have a number of sugar and AG ferments and runs under my belt. And one of my first experiments is going to be either a sugar/honey based Mango Habanero Pineapple shine. Here is the ingredients for my MPH mead:

2 gal Costco Mango Nectar (2 x 1 gal)
15 lbs Kirkland Unfiltered Honey (5 x 3 lbs)
256 oz Pineapple Juice (4 x 64 oz)
12 oz Frozen Pineapple Juice Concentrate (had it in the freezer)
6 Habaneros, Sliced and De-seeded
8 lbs Costco Frozen Pineapple Chunks
1 EC1118 Yeast
Yeast Nutrient and Energizer
OG = 1.132
Did step feeding for a week
Initial ferment is in 10 gal Brute with towel on top
After the first week, I racked to a 7 gal Fermonster with an airlock.
SG after 2 months was 1.007 (16.41%)

I let it clear and sit in glass for almost a year with occasional rackings and then bottled it.

So my thought is to do the same thing again, but let it clear and rack into the boiler.