I want to make my first chile beer what would you recommend? Nothing super crazy hot but enough that would have a nice pepper finish in the end.
Looking to make either a light, amber, or hefe.
Wondering if I should add the peppers to primary, secondary, or in bottling? Should I use dried, frozen, reconstituted, blended?
If you have a link to a really good recipe that I could use that would be even better.
Thanks everybody
I found a clone recipe for "Patty's Chili Beer" from Wynkoop Brewing Co,in CO.
It's listed in The Best of BYO's 250 Classic clone Recipes,page 101.
5G,extract with steeping grains;
OG-1.039
FG-1.007
IBU-23
SRM-4
ABV 4.2%
3.3lb Cooper's Light un-hopped LME
1.5lb light DME
5oz (140g) flaked oats
5oz (140g) Munich malt
1tsp irish moss (it says 60mins??)
1.5oz Saaz hop pellets,3.5%AA-60 minutes
.5oz Saaz hop pellets-10 minutes
10oz (280g) Anaheim peppers (end of boil)
1/2 medium size ancho chili,roasted (end of boil)
WLP002 English ale yeast or Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast.
3/4C (150g) dextrose for priming.
**** Steep the crushed grain & flaked oats in 3 gallons of water @160F for 30 minutes.Remove grains from wort & drain well. Add LME & DME & bring to a boil.
Add Saaz hop bittering addition & Irish moss & start timer for 60 minutes. During the boil,use this time to de-seed peppers & chop into 1/4" dice. Roast the 1/2 ancho chili over open flame-gas stove or bbq-until lightly charred. chop into 1/4" dice also. Add the Saaz 10 minute addition. Add the chopped chilies at flame out,cover & steep 15 minutes.
>>>Here's where my style comes in. Chill wort in ice bath till down to 75F. It must be poured through a sanitized fine mesh strainer into fermenter to get out pepper peices,etc. Top off with chilled cold water to 5 gallons. This should get the wort down to 64F or so if the top off water was chilled in the fridge a couple days previously as I do. Aerate wort heavily (they say). I do that by pouring wort & top off water through fine mesh strainer in a circular motion. Then stir roughly 5 minutes to mix well & aerate a bit more. Take hydrometer sample & pitch yeast. Wort should be 68F according to recipe at this point. Hold this temp till fermentation is complete. It says to condition 1 week then bottle or keg. What this tells me is the usual 1 week after FG is reached to let the beer clean up & settle out clear or slightly misty. Then package.
<**> It's my educated opinion that much of the extract be added at flame out for that light SRM of 4. In other words,use the 1.5lbs of light DME in the boil. Being 3 gallons,with an average boil off of 1/2 gallons per hour,that 1.5lbs of DME should work fine. If you have an electric stove,roasting the 1/2 ancho chili right on the burners can be done with a close eye.