I am a new home brewer and I am looking to make a Jalapeño pepper ale. The local brew pub has one on tap once a year and its fantastic. I was just curious of what would make a good base for this, and any recomendations on how much peppers to use and when to add them in the boil. I was told to use them sparingly but id like to put a number on sparingly. Thanks in advance for any help.
I would start with a good APA, and add parboiled pepper/ pepper tea to secondary. If you do a tea, you could prolly only need 2-3 nice sliced, de-seeded peppers for 5 gallons.
__________________
Why yes, yes I am a metrosexual!
On taps 1,2&3: Una Mas Cerveza, Ham in a Can, IPA Primary: XINGU Clone, Rye P.A. 2ndary: Low Gluten IPA, Bourbon Oak Aged Vanilla Porter Kegged: Sh*tty Orange Hefe, Una Mas Cerveza, Smokin Hot Blonde, Belgian Dubbel Next up: Una Mas Cerveza, Pecan Pie
I did a jalapeno pepper beer a long time ago. What I did was simply drop a whole pepper (into which I had cut a small slice) into a bottles of pale ale at bottling time. I only did about 6-8 of the batch this way.
Wow . . . was it hot! I loved it, but my tolerance for spice is far greater than anyone I know. None of my buddies was able to drink it. I ended up using some of the bottles to make chili - which turned out to be a better use than drinking it straight.
Unless you are really a chile-head, be careful with how much you use or your beer will light you up!
I'd love to hear about your results from this one. Let us know when you brew it up.
For those familiar, is there a tremendous difference between brewing chipotle vs. fresh jalapeno (or insert your favorite pepper)?
There's an enormous difference, to the point that they're only related by the fact that jalapeños are used to make chipotles. Chipotles are smoked japs and have an overwhelming smoky chile flavor, while a fresh jap just has green chile flavor.
TDR13, try to acquire the latest copy of BYO which has a clone of a chile beer that is supposedly pretty good.
Chile beer is what I won my Great American Beer Festival medals with. In my opinion, when making a chile beer you have to decide if you want heat, flavor or some combination. I tend to go for a blend, with the balance going towards the flavor and aroma. I am not a fan of FIRE beers that just burn and want something that I can enjoy and not remember with regret the next time I'm on the can.
My personal favorite chile is a fresh roasted New Mexico green chile. They have a great roasted flavor and the heat is variable and therefore fairly easy to gauge and manage.
I like a golden beer base, along the lines of a golden ale or European lager. I like it clean with few esters and lightly hopped and only bitter hopped. A little crystal is fine but I want the roast chile flavor and aroma to take center stage and not have to do battle with lots of extra flavors.
It is useful to add some cara-pils and/or wheat because the oils from the chile will really kill the head on these beers. I also avoid boiling the chile and dry hop with them in the secondary.
I dry hop for a couple reasons. First I want the chile in the fermented wort enviroment where the alcohol and the ph can help extract the oils. Second, I want to retain as much aroma as possible and the CO2 of primary fermentation will drive much of this off. Third, I DON'T want my chile fermenting any more then they need to. They do have sugars and I am not after chile wine.
SO, after primary I chill the batch down and dump in my chiles. Frozen chile works well because the freezing ruptures the cells in the fruit and more liquid is exposed. As I said earlier, I like a roasted chile as well. In New Mexico we take our chile very seriously, but elsewhere I would suggest oven roasting your chiles under the broiler until the skin is dark brown to black and splitting. When you put it in the secondary, put every bit in, stem seeds, skin and meat.
Let it soak for a week of so. It is my advice to start on the conservative side. You can always add more chile.
My assumption is a chile beer is a beer first and a chile beer second. It should be clean and have the character of your chile, not the other way around. Balance is key.
Key points:
Crisp, straight forward base
Roasted chiles or peppers
Dry hop the chiles in a secondary
Don't go overboard with the heat!
__________________ Before I learned to brew I was poor, sober and lonely. Now I am just poor.
Thanks for the tips. I am a huge fan of New Mexico cuisine in general and New Mexico chiles in particular. I'd really like to try a beer with NM red chiles and maybe a touch of cinammon--kindof like a beer with the flavors of Chimayo red sauce.
Do you think dried reds in the secondary would still be the way to go? I've been thinking of making a puree just as you would for a sauce and adding it at flameout.
I agree wholeheartedly that subtle is better for these kinds of beers.
__________________
Primary: none
Secondary:
Bottle conditioning: Robust Porter
Drinking: Saison Dupont clone, tripel
Coming soon: Columbus APA, Rich Red ale
Thanks for the tips. I am a huge fan of New Mexico cuisine in general and New Mexico chiles in particular. I'd really like to try a beer with NM red chiles and maybe a touch of cinammon--kindof like a beer with the flavors of Chimayo red sauce.
Do you think dried reds in the secondary would still be the way to go? I've been thinking of making a puree just as you would for a sauce and adding it at flameout.
I agree wholeheartedly that subtle is better for these kinds of beers.
I know it can work, but part of the trick is the nature of the dried pods. A puree is a good idea, but in Northern NM cooking, red chile sauce has to be sauteed for a lack of a better word, to bring out that flavor. Otherwise it just tastes like raw chile. I have considered using fresh roasted red chiles, not dried.
Back to your idea of a puree. Maybe if you used dried pods, or fresh powder and simmered in water. I will have to think on this one. I use the powder a lot in cooking with broth.
I don't know about cinnamon. There is a flavor in red chile sauce that reminds me of cinnamon, but isn't. I have made a Mole porter that is really good and has a small amount of cinnamon, plus coco and red chile. Maybe I should post it.
I would tend to want my chile additions done in the secondary, for the retention of the aroma, if for no other reason.
__________________ Before I learned to brew I was poor, sober and lonely. Now I am just poor.
I have made a Mole porter that is really good and has a small amount of cinnamon, plus coco and red chile. Maybe I should post it.
Maybe you should. I love beer and I love mole. Of course, I also thought to myself "I love beer and I love bacon", but the Schlenkerla was not what I was expecting.
Suggestions for a Jalapeño Pepper ale
Linear Mode
