Mango-Habanero Mead is a spicy and fruity brew, brainstormed with a good friend of mine. Its culinary applications are immense.
Originally Posted: Aug. 9, 2020
Table of Contents
Quick Specs
- OG = ~1.105
- ABV: ~14%
- Taste Profile: Spicy and fruity
- Time: First batch only took 2 months; second batch took longer because I ran into similar problems as my pear mead. I had to split it into two batches and water them down.
- Yield:
- First batch: 25 bottles
- Second batch: Split between 25 bottles and a Corny keg to test it out as a sparkling mead.
Intro
I like to bring my homebrewed beverages to friends so that they can try them out and tell me what they think. Their feedback often helps me fine-tune my process the next time I brew a recipe again, and sometimes their comments help me think of ways to use my brews in culinary pursuits.
One of my good friends became interested in the mead-making process after trying several of my meads and asked me if I would show her my process. I asked her what flavor we should try out and she suggested using habaneros. This would be my first time making a spicy pepper mead, and I’m really glad she chose that ingredient.
I looked up a few brewing recipes that used peppers to get an idea of what we were getting ourselves into and saw one for a cider (I think) that also used mango. So we decided on making it a mango-habanero mead.
When brew day came, she brought over all of the ingredients except for the honey, and she even brought an extra habanero and some mango White Claw so we could get an idea of what the flavors would taste like together.
Ingredients
- First Batch:
- 1 Habanero, sliced with the stem and seeds removed
- 3 bags of frozen mango from Trader Joe’s (I think they come in 1-lb. bags)
- 5 gallons of spring water
- 15 lbs. of wildflower honey, step-fed
- Around 3 extra habaneros in a mason jar full of vodka, to add extra spice before bottling
- Lalvin D-47 yeast
- Yeast nutrient
- Second Batch:
- 3 Habaneros, sliced with the stem and seeds removed
- 1 bottle of Vintner’s Best mango fruit wine base
- 15 lbs. of wildflower honey, step-fed
- A mix of Lalvin D-47 and EC-1118
- Yeast nutrient
- Next Time:
- 3 Habaneros
- Instead of using blended fruit or Vintner’s Best, I think I’ll experiment using Monin brand fruit syrup (made with cane sugar, with no preservatives), or I might try with just half the amount of Vintner’s Best.
Equipment
- Sanitizer
- Fermenter
- Airlock and stopper
- Sous vide circulator (optional, to heat the honey for pouring)
- A blender (optional, if you follow the Batch #1 method)
Instructions
This was one of the first meads that I instantly wanted to cook with, so shortly after finishing the first batch I decided to do a second, more mango-y batch. Like with my pear mead, I chose to use a Vintner’s Best fruit wine base, and like with my pear mead, I didn’t take the extra sugar into account when formulating the recipe. So, I’ll present the instructions in two parts, trying to detail each method, their problems, and what I would do differently next time.
First Batch
- Thaw frozen mangos in the fridge overnight, at room temperature for a few hours, or place the bag in a bowl with cold running tap water over it (this was one way I used to quick-thaw fish back when I worked in seafood. Use cold water, not warm water).
- Warm up the honey per your preferred method.
- Slice habanero and remove seeds and stem.
- Puree mangos and habanero in blender.
- Mix mango-habanero puree, 10 lbs. of the honey, and 5 gallons of spring water in your fermenter and add yeast and nutrient.
- Wait until primary fermentation slows, then add remaining 5 lbs. of honey.
- Rack into secondary when fermentation slows again.
- Clarify or filter if desired, then bottle.
Second Batch
- Warm honey per your preferred method.
- Slice 3 habanero peppers and remove seeds and stems.
- Mix 10 lbs. of honey, water, fruit wine base, habaneros, yeast, and nutrient in fermenter.
- Follow steps 6 – 8 from first batch.
Problems with First Batch
Using a fruit puree caused a lot of sediment over the course of fermentation. The level of fruit sediment ended up clogging my siphon, so I ended up losing several potential bottles-worth of mead. This is what led me to consider using a mango fruit wine base, but I think the mead would’ve turned out fine if I’d just used whole mango chunks.
I dealt with a similar problem when I used canned pumpkin in a batch of pumpkin metheglin mead a few months later.
Problems with Second Batch
The exact same problem that I had with my pear mead happened again here. Vintner’s Best fruit wine bases already have a lot of fermentable sugar included, something I wasn’t used to calculating for back when I used Country Spoon concentrates. It was this batch of mango-habanero mead that alerted me to this problem and allowed me to fix my pear mead as well. In the case of both of these meads, I split them equally between two fermenters, topped off with water, and added a little extra fruit and/or fruit juice (I was hoping to prevent losing any flavor from watering down).
However, there was a silver lining to ending up with twice as much mead as I’d planned. I didn’t feel like loading my wine racks up with too much of the same mead, so I split this one between 25 bottles and a Corny keg. Kegging: not just for beers!
This one is absolutely delicious as a sparkling mead. I might only make the sparkling version from now on.
What I Will Try in Future Batches
In future batches of this mead, I think I’ll heat up the frozen mango in a bit of the spring water and a little sugar to create a syrupy mass of fruit. Then I’ll pour that into a mesh bag in the fermenter (to keep fruit from clogging my siphon too much). I’ll add the rest of the spring water and 10 lbs. of honey in the fermenter, then take a gravity reading and decide whether to step-feed 5 more pounds of honey in secondary. I’d like to keep some Monin brand mango syrup or Monin mango puree on hand for secondary in case I don’t feel it’s mango-y enough.
Another option I’ve considered trying is to use Vintner’s Best again, but only use half the bottle and only 10 lbs. of honey.
Variations
Because of mead’s potential ABV, it often takes a while to finish fermentation. I’ve thought about making a mango-habanero cider to see if it still has that tropical fruity flavor and spice. Should ferment out quicker.
Tips & Tricks
When dealing with fruit purees or dried fruits, sediment can case problems for your siphon. When dealing with fruit wine bases, always take the included sugar content into account when using them in a mead.
Culinary Uses
I think this mead was the one that first inspired me to start thinking up culinary uses for mead. The first recipe that came to mind when I brewed this one was Mango-Habanero Glazed Chicken Thighs. The plan was to marinate the thighs in the mead, then either grill or bake them until the skin is crispy. While the chicken thighs are cooking, you reduce the mango-habanero marinade down into a sweet and spicy glaze, then brush it onto the chicken thighs while they finish cooking.
However, while cooking this I discovered that making a reduction sauce from this one took longer than such sauces normally do, so now I recommend making the sauce ahead of time and storing it in the fridge. So far I’ve found that it’s good on chicken, salmon, or pork.
