Chili Beer

brew2you · 12-13-2009, 03:45 PM

I'm wanting to try making a chili beer. My plans are to use an American Amber kit and add sereno chilis. My question is.. should I use fresh chilis or dried? And when should I add them, During the boil or into the fermenter like dry hopping? Also if this is a horrible idea please let me know as I am just experimenting. Thanks for any suggestions.

**Walker** · 12-13-2009, 04:11 PM

I've done both fresh (jalapenos) and dried (chipotles...also jalapenos, I suppose). Either works great depending on the profile you're going for. I would add them to the secondary like dryhopping.

Not a horrible idea at all.

BeeGee

dtduffy · 12-13-2009, 05:39 PM

Walker. How many chilis would you add for a 5 gallon batch?

fineexampl · 12-13-2009, 05:47 PM

you can also add chopped serranos to your boil and extract some capsaicin from them. might not be a bad idea to sterilize the pods before you add them to your fermenter? not sure really. I added a whole habanero to a bomber once and it was too hot to comfortably drink more than a little bit without getting scorched.

**Walker** · 12-13-2009, 08:22 PM

That post from me wasn't actually from me. Baron von BeeGee was at my place for a brew session and was using my conputer. You'll have to PM him to get his attention. I've never put any peppers in beer.

dtduffy · 12-13-2009, 11:17 PM

Thanks, will do.

**Lcasanova** · 12-14-2009, 12:23 AM

Basic Brewing Video, check it:

September 30, 2009 - Chili Beer Experiment
Steve shares the results of his experiment comparing five different chili peppers in the same base beer.

**bad67z** · 12-14-2009, 12:48 AM

I have never brewed a chili beer,but I sampled a fantastic pale ale at a band mate"s of a buddy of mine. He had 12 homebrew on tap and I sampled all of them, I went back for 2 pints(it was that good) of the Smoked Chill Pale Ale. He put 5-10 split and seeded smoked Serrano peepers in the secondary.

Cheers...

Imp_atient · 12-14-2009, 02:56 AM

I made a Pilsner kit. I roasted 5 big Jalapeno peppers on the BBQ, then I scraped the black stuff off and threw them right in the boil towards the end.

I let them ferment in the primary as well. Didn't have a secondary at that point.

At first it tasted SUPER peppery and a little bit hot. After about 3 weeks in bottles there was no heat and the pepper flavor blended nicely with everything else. I was hoping for the heat to stay but I suppose I could have used more and added them later.

I think people generally use more peppers than I did, but the results were great because seriously...IMHO peppers are way better on nachos to consume alongside beer than beer that tastes just like peppers.

spence21989 · 12-14-2009, 03:10 AM

I made a basic APA(execpt a little low on the IBU's so the chili flavor will stand out) and added 1 roasted ancho chili per gallon to the secondary.

Batch Size: 2gal
3.25lb American Pale Ale Malt
0.25lb Crystal(45L)
~0.1lb Carapils
0.5oz Cascade for 30min
0.25oz Perle for 10min

OG 1.050

I'm going to bottle it in a couple days so we'll see how it comes out. It was more of an experiment with some leftover ingredients than anything.

+1 for the Basic Brewing Video, good tips on there for chili beers.