Spicy beer?

I dunno if this a dumb question or not, but is there such a thing as spicy beer? Not like spices spicy, but hot pepper spicy.

I was thinking about the Sam Adams longshot competition, and they wanted something creative, and I've never really heard about "hot" beer. How would you go about creating this? Would it be disgusting?

Just interested.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hot+pepper+beer

...all in good fun

Never made but have had a few fab chile beers! Good luck!

Yeah, I googled Habanero beer and got some similar results. But how would one go about "cloning" said beer? Add the peppers to the secondary?

Yea Six Rivers Brewery makes a pepper beer. I think they used jalapeno or serano chilies. They added slices of peppers in the boil and then dry hopped with peppers for a week in secondary. I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure its good. I actually talked to the owners and brewing supervisor of the brewery for about 20 min. Great people.

Chile beer is fairly common, especially in the SW. In New Mexico lots of breweries make a chile beer around the annual Hatch Chile harvest at the end of summer. Steve Eske of Eske's Brewpub in Taos is often credited with the style but many others, like Santa Fe Brewing, make one. Hell, even a local brewpub in Boerne, TX made one!!!

Eske's is the first place I ever tried one and thought it was pretty good (though I'm not sure I could get through 5 gallons of it ) so I asked about the recipe. They use a fairly simple pale ale recipe and roast the peppers then add them to the beer much like dry hopping in the secondary--the amount of peppers and the amount of time you leave them is really up to the brewer and just how hot you want it.

You can search these threads and find plenty of recipes. Most people do a pale or a brown ale as the base. You want a little chile aroma and flavor with a slow building and somewhat subtle burn. Too hot just gets ridiculous and too mild and it just tastes weak and peppery.

Good luck with your experimentation

Been there, done that, even enterred in Longshot.

Here's one of the versions of my chocolate mole porter, this one netted me an honorable mention in a comp...The next version took a bronze, doubling the chocolate and chili. The latest version which hasn't been entered I just used various dried chillis in the boil.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/cayenne-chocolate-stout-yikes-134722/#post1518994

Only chili beer I have had and enjoyed was from the wynkoop brewery in Denver. Try it if you are out that way.

I love chili beers, this reminds me I should make one soon. Here's my pepper experiment:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/5x-pepper-beers-172082/

bovineblitz said:

I love chili beers, this reminds me I should make one soon. Here's my pepper experiment:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/5x-pepper-beers-172082/

Click to expand...

Very interesting thread/experiment.

Thanks for all the responses guys, I'll have to try it some time.

In all seriousness... peppers have hop-like qualities, in the sense that the heat comes from the oil... the longer the boil, the higher the heat. Additionally, some peppers have higher Scoville Units like some hops have higher Alpha Acids. Jalepenos have good pepper flavor and good heat, a habenero has a lot of heat and less flavor.

I would brew a 5 gallon batch, taking the preboil wort and dividing it up into mini-boils doing a few different "pepper additions" to see what works with your vision.

i like hot foods but beer?!?!? this is a new one for me :rockin: rock on!

If you don't want to brew it... try this: http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink5334.html

Use a crisp lager type beer (i.e. cervesa)

I made one of these. I halved and seared a habanero and two jalapenos then put them in secondary of a 5 gal batch. It goes great with a meal.

For a unique approach to the peppers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padrón

Padron peppers, when grown past their "natural" harvest size, get stupid hot. Not pleasant at all. But in a beer..? Just could be crazy enough to work. And I know you can get the seeds here in the US. My SWMBO grows them and we always have to keep tabs on the things to make sure they don't start turning brown and deadly.

Black phoenix from bootleggers brewery... dark, chocolatey, coffeeish, with chipotle peppers! Very interesting beer! Leaves a tingling on the tongue
heres a link
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/17271/49098

You're right chefmike, the chili beer from the Wynkoop brewery in Denver is great!