Manzano Chilli

[RuddyCrazy]

Well took a 150 ml sample down the SABest party and man did it go down nice with the several people that tasted it. Most were coy when the chilli word was spoken but after one said this is golden the 150ml didn't last long and many people were happy with the taste of the fruit then the bang with warm feeling going down and a butter sctoch after taste.

With more age this stuff can only get better and after the heat it may be 6 months or to get another harvest.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well finally got a couple of Manzano chilli trees in again and this morning did the first harvest :handgestures-thumbupleft: now the other 3 chilli plants are coming along nicely and it will be about a month or so before the chilli's are ready for picking. Also the manzano has about a dozen of chilli's ripening.

So with this mornings take I processed them and here's a few tips when doing it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Use a cutting board along with a sharp knife and a couple of icecream containers.

now also have some nitrile gloves to wear as we don't want to rub our eyes not wearing gloves do we :laughing-rolling:

slice each chilli in half and remove the centre bit that holds the seeds and make sure most of the seeds are put in the icecream container that is used for the scraps.

Use a sealable plastic bag and have a spare one handy for later.

Open one bag so one can drop the sliced chilli in making sure it doesn't topple over.

Only fill the bag to about 1/2 full then use another if more is to be done.

Now freezing the chilli will release more of the sugars and raise the Brix(SG) a point or two.

So when waiting for more to ripen keeps the chilli's in the freezer ready and when it's time to ferment just defrost all the bags.

Now one will find diluting the chilli's will bring down the SG so invert a bit of sugar to make a simple solution to raise the SG.

Re-hydrate some EC1118 yeast and after adding give it good mixing to add oxygen to the water to give the yeasties a head start.

Once the ferment is done strip the wash to get some low wines and when doing the spirit run add some of the chilli flesh to the boiler.

Now one can just age leaving it white dog or decant to 65% and add some French Oak to make some Brandy

Now one doesn't want to add all the seeds to the ferment as it will make the wash and taste like pepper spray :angry-banghead: I did a small sample and after tasting it took a heap of water and ice coffee to get the horrid flavour :angry-banghead:

Cheers Bryan

[EziTasting]

Nice write up!
Have you ever thought of drying the seeds and then replanting them yourself?
I haven’t been able to get Manzanos but grow a selection that suits my taste, generally from my own seeds. I find they do better, because their parent plant endures our environment, the seedlings seem to cope better…
Just a thought.

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Ezi :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The main problem we have here keeping the chilli's going all year around is frost and heat wave conditions in summer, we nearly lost the red and orange plants last winter so I put an old curtain over them attached to the fence and held down by the bricks on the path of the vege patch. The orange chilli faired the worst and is coming back nicely but sadly no fruit this season.

The first harvest after processing only weighed 180 grams and most were small chilli's and now the plant is maturing the chilli's are starting to become the bell chilli's, got more flowers and quite a few ripening so over the next month I'll grab every one and do the processing and at the end I'm hoping to have enough to do a 25 or 30 litre ferment.

I do have to say with the spirit I have here from the first batch I did several years ago it has taken on a new flavour and bit moire heat has come back to the spirit.

If you want I can dry some seeds and send them your way but remember the Manzano is a chilli tree and will last quite a few years :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I'm sure in the hot climate you have up there by setting the right conditions like a forward position BUT not full sun and keeping the water up to them. On really hot stinking days think about covering them up with a transparent wet sheet and keep the moist over the course of the day.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,

Picked the last crop off the chilli tree this morning and put the frozen batch in my solar oven to defrost which only took about 1/2 an hour in the full sun :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

So got thinking if i just did a 5 litre ferment it would only be about 4 litres as head room is needed and we have a heap of 10 litre buckets here with sealable lids :handgestures-thumbupleft: so drilled a hole in the lid and fitted an airlock and now i got a 10 litre fermenter :laughing-rolling:

Had a bit of white sugar onhand here so inverted it then chucked it and topped it to just over 8 litres, checked the PH and 5 was the result :handgestures-thumbupleft: the temp of the wash is 43C and the SG is 1065 so later this arvo I'll make a yeast starter with some EC1118 yeast and let it do it's thing and have a blast converting those chilli's for me :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

so this will give me enough for 2 strip runs in my 5 litre 2" pot still and then a spirit run.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Last night noticed the airlock on the chilli wash had stopped so this morning took a FG reading and 994 :scared-eek: so yea just over a week to ferment :handgestures-thumbupleft: and the wash was pretty clear so using my big SS filter the wash was poured into a bucket and got the first strip run warming up now in my 5 litre 2" pot still.

There isn't enough wash for a full second strip so some of that angel yeast corn will be going in to bump up the ABV and i'll throw in some of the chilli fruit to get some extra flavour going :handgestures-thumbupleft:

so strip today and spirit run in the morning and it has been a long time between drinks since my first chilli project and i'm really looking forward to having a dram tomorrow after the angels have a little sip :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[EziTasting]

Nice.
Been a while since I had a chance to do anything… but my stocks are running low and not being able to get any supplies is making that even more difficult… :angry-banghead:

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day guy's,

Got about 1100mm down to 20@ with the first strip run and as I only had just over 2 litres of wash I bumped it up that angel corn spirit to get the ABV of the wash just under 40%. Thats the only thing this angel yeast spirit will be used for and once it's gone i'll go back to using my Nothing for bumping up wash's to get a better yield :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well doing those 2 strip runs worked out nicely for the spirit run :handgestures-thumbupleft: chucked both goon bottles worth in the boiler and put 2 litres of water in then checked the ABV and sure enough 40% :handgestures-thumbupleft: so on the heatup now for a good start to the day. :laughing-rolling:

I do need to do a check around the farm later as we did cop an earthquake this morning :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

But priorities are in order as the chilli just can't wait :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well did a nice slow spirit run and started with 10 off 50ml beakers for cut jars then got just over a litre @ 85% :handgestures-thumbupleft: then took several 100ml cuts down to 40% and man with the early tails the smell of the chilli really came thru :handgestures-thumbupleft: .

Now I do intend to keep some white dog and put some down on French oak with using some of the tails as I do think age will bring out a heap more flavour.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well it has been a few years since I done this and as I did take this chili down to Tasi for that Whisky Conference where Suzi Crow's other half just loved it so the bottle of the chilli brandy was hers period :laughing-rolling:

Now when this was made there was nice taste of the fruit and not much heat in a dram so decided one night on a shed bender to have a taste and man :scared-eek: the taste of the fruit was gone and the heat has come back :scared-eek: So rang Crow and told if he had any left to have a dram and 5 minutes later got it confirmed, now as Crow is anal with spirits he did say it's the first time he he witnessed a bottle change it's taste profile when aging at 40% in the bottle. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So been thinking about over the last couple of days where I was having fun in my tractor with the grader blade on reforming the roads on the farm so my idea rather than just buy a few seedlings just go look for some nice hot chilli's in the fruit market buy enough to do a small ferment and process the seeds so I can grow a heap of them and keep this recipe going as I can see this will be a fun project so the plan will be buy a kilo of nice hot chili's do a small ferment so I can strip and do the spirit run in my 1 litre glass still to get some fresh white dog.

Then see how many chilli plants I can get started off the seeds as my plan is to 60 litre ferments so I can make enough for the second age in my badmo barrel so plenty of pic's to come as this new goal of using some hot chillis to make a nice white dog and some chili brandy.

Now trying to seeds going will need a decent temp controlled bed and with JLCPCB doin deals on hotbeds for 3D printers for a few bucks will have a heated bed, this morning looked on feebay for some grow lights and found one for $22 so bought a few of them. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now I don't know why but I did buy a heap of kaneka solar panels which are 990x960 and useless for their intended purpose as the output 90 volts at a pultry 2 amps now with a few tek screws they do make a nice grow box and with JLCPCB going 300x300ml heatpads and 10 off cost a whole $25 so no reason the wait a full season when a closed box with a couple of grow lights should get enough fruit going in a couple of months :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I am thinking Adelaide markets for my hunt on the chillis to use and the plan is to some off the scoville level where if they are too hot to eat they will make a nice white dog for those that are game just off a name.

It has been a long while since I did any distilling so what better project to get going to get my still working again

Cheers Bryan

[Stillsmith]

Well it has been a few years since I done this and as I did take this chili down to Tasi for that Whisky Conference where Suzi Crow's other half just loved it so the bottle of the chilli brandy was hers period :laughing-rolling:

Now when this was made there was nice taste of the fruit and not much heat in a dram so decided one night on a shed bender to have a taste and man :scared-eek: the taste of the fruit was gone and the heat has come back :scared-eek: So rang Crow and told if he had any left to have a dram and 5 minutes later got it confirmed, now as Crow is anal with spirits he did say it's the first time he he witnessed a bottle change it's taste profile when aging at 40% in the bottle. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

So been thinking about over the last couple of days where I was having fun in my tractor with the grader blade on reforming the roads on the farm so my idea rather than just buy a few seedlings just go look for some nice hot chilli's in the fruit market buy enough to do a small ferment and process the seeds so I can grow a heap of them and keep this recipe going as I can see this will be a fun project so the plan will be buy a kilo of nice hot chili's do a small ferment so I can strip and do the spirit run in my 1 litre glass still to get some fresh white dog.

Then see how many chilli plants I can get started off the seeds as my plan is to 60 litre ferments so I can make enough for the second age in my badmo barrel so plenty of pic's to come as this new goal of using some hot chillis to make a nice white dog and some chili brandy.

Now trying to seeds going will need a decent temp controlled bed and with JLCPCB doin deals on hotbeds for 3D printers for a few bucks will have a heated bed, this morning looked on feebay for some grow lights and found one for $22 so bought a few of them. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now I don't know why but I did buy a heap of kaneka solar panels which are 990x960 and useless for their intended purpose as the output 90 volts at a pultry 2 amps now with a few tek screws they do make a nice grow box and with JLCPCB going 300x300ml heatpads and 10 off cost a whole $25 so no reason the wait a full season when a closed box with a couple of grow lights should get enough fruit going in a couple of months :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I am thinking Adelaide markets for my hunt on the chillis to use and the plan is to some off the scoville level where if they are too hot to eat they will make a nice white dog for those that are game just off a name.

It has been a long while since I did any distilling so what better project to get going to get my still working again

Cheers Bryan

I think the chilli fire water would be a good little experiment. :handgestures-thumbupleft: