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bortology · 12-31-2010, 09:33 PM

Hey Guys,
I am gearing up to try to make a Chili Beer and I am looking for some suggestions.

I am going to use a Coopers Mexican Cerveza Kit. I have been thinking of adding some chocolate malt to play off of the chili taste. But I am tempted to just let it be and add the Jalapeno peppers in the primary.

What do you think?

Has anyone added Chili to beer?

I am working mostly off of the advice in the Jan 2011 'Beer' Magazine.

Any advice you could give me would be great!

**Revvy** · 12-31-2010, 09:35 PM

There's quite a few threads about chilli beers. There's a couple in the similar threads box below, and they will have similar thread boxes as well.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/those-who-have-done-chili-pepper-beer-before-182285/

This one has a bunch of similar threads attaced to it.

**cheezydemon3** · 12-31-2010, 09:37 PM

Yeah.....chocolate malt in a mexican lager sounds like ASS.

My pale ale habanero ale was about perfect. A porter or stout would probably work, but I wouldn't build that off of a "cervesa".

bortology · 01-02-2011, 04:44 PM

Thanks!

coypoo · 01-03-2011, 02:44 PM

For a 2.5 gal batch I added 2 anaheim chilis and 1 roasted poblano and it came out pretty well. The chili flavor was there, but it wasnt overpowering either. I messed up my mash temps (way too low) so that affected it some, but it turned out OK

HavePh8 · 01-03-2011, 03:06 PM

The first beer I brewed was an amber ale baron beer kit which didn't turn out anywhere near good but, as an experiment, I dropped a chili in 4 bottles at bottling. Those turned out very tasty. The method worked well but the longer you wait to drink, the spicier it will be. Let me tell you that the last one which I drank 4 months later was borderline and one more month would have made it undrinkable. We have a beer in Quebec called El Lapino which has a small Jalapeno pepper in the beer bottle, the one I had a couple days ago was brewed in May and it was like drinking liquid Jalapeno. So, you might want to make sure you drink them fairly quickly if you decide to go that route.

On the other hand, you can boil some off and drop some in the secondary to control how much sting you want.. I got to taste my Jalapeño Cream Ale off this recipe only a few days ago and was quite pleased with it. This was my first AG brew and it turned out quite well though I would modify it to give it a stronger beer taste if I decided to brew it again.

mcarb · 01-03-2011, 03:32 PM

I made a habanero ale recently. Basic pale ale recipe. I added two habaneros to the secondary with seeds removed. After two weeks I tasted it and felt it needed a bit more. So I cut one more hab in half, left the seeds in, and put in secondary with the other two for one more week.

It was great. Just the right amount.

ReverseApacheMaster · 01-03-2011, 03:38 PM

Although chilis are sometimes added to porters and stouts, you are far more likely to find them in some kind of "yellow beer". Kolsch, pale ale, blonde, Mexican lager, cream ale, American lager and the like. I think you could find some chili beers that might work in an American wheat, but I've never actually seen one.

The biggest issue will be whether you are going for heat, flavor or both. Chilies will contribute pretty much the same heat and flavor into beer that it has on its own. You may want to consider fresh v. roasted, blends of less spicy and more spicy chilies to get a good flavor and heat. Secondly, keep in mind it takes very little chili to give it flavor and heat. I did 2.5 gallons of blonde with 3 fresh green chilies and 4 roasted and only left it for a week and it has huge flavor -- no spice because they are not spicy chilies. For spicy chilies that will give off heat one or two in a five gallon batch may be more than enough. Constant taste through secondary is key.