Chiptle peppers in Adobo sauce

I want to make a cream ale with the addition of a can of Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000GGHWY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

This is the exact brand I will use. It's a 7oz can, which is about 75% peppers and the rest is the Adobo sauce. The peppers are roasted and split down the middle. The sauce is tomato based with a little vinegar, maybe some oil too (it's really spicy and very tastey). I don't have a can in-hand to look at the ingredients, but under the assumtion that there IS oil in there, I have some concerns:

I am concerned about the effects of the oil on head retention and what-not. I don't have a feel for how MUCH oil becomes a problem, as we are probably talking about less than a teaspoon's worth. The other thing is the vinegar. It is probably about the same amount of vinegar as ketchup, as a % content. I figure there is probably about 2oz of the sauce in the can with the peppers.

I know I could just rinse the peppers off, but damn that sauce is SO good. I don't know if it would translate to a better beer, but I'd like to use it in there if it wouldn't cause problems.

The other thing would be the seeds. I can surely scrape them out of each pepper, as that's how we cook with them. I see some pepper beer recipes that leave them in, and others take 'em out. What is the difference? Just a heat controller, or what?

Thanks for your opinions, especially for those opinions backed by experience

Marz

I have some chipotle pepper w/ adobo sauce on hand. Not the same brand but I'm sure it's probably the same. Ingredients are as follows:

- Chipotle peppers
- Water
- Tomato Puree
- Vegetable oil (corn or safflower)
- Wheat Flower
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Starch
- Onion Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Caramel color and spices

Nutrition Facts (servings per container = 7) wow... really 7 in one small container?

Calories 15
Calories from fat 5

Total Fat .5g 1%
saturated fat 0g
trans fat 0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 140 mg 6%
Total Carbohydrate 2g 1%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Sugars less than 1g
Protein less than 1g

Honestly I would skip the can and just use chipotle peppers. I used some chipotles and anchos (the dried in a bag kind) in a porter some time back and it was excellent. The chipotle flavor really stood out although I didn't let it sit on the chipotles long enough to get any heat. So between the chipotles and the anchos it had a kind of smokey raisiny flavor to it. Pretty soon I want to try and make a chipotle cream ale using the dried chipotles again. This time leaving the beer on the chipotles until it gains some heat from it.

I wonder if it may be a better idea to use regular chipotles + some smoked malt. That might help you simulate / approximate the adobo, without having to worry about the oils, etc in the sauce.

platypotamus said:

I wonder if it may be a better idea to use regular chipotles + some smoked malt. That might help you simulate / approximate the adobo, without having to worry about the oils, etc in the sauce.

Click to expand...

If you use the dried chipotle peppers I don't think the smoked malt is even necessary. The dried chipotles leave a very strong smoky flavor on their own.

What's the procedure, do you put the peppers in the secondary? If so, for how long?

Here's the real-life update:

Brewed on 2/12

So, I made a standard Cream ale (2-row with vienna, flaked corn and some cara-pils, ~25IBU). Hops: Cluster (1oz 60M), liberty (1oz, 25M), liberty (1oz, 15M). It's a bit hoppy for a cream ale, but the theory is that the bitter will help balance the heat. Pitched Safale 04.

I added the peppers, chopped up coarsely and RINSED free of the oily sauce 15 minutes before flame-out. (saved the sauce and mixed it up with some sour cream for tacos the next night.. excellent). I didn't remove the seeds or anything, save what was lost incidentally during rinsing (not much was lost, as the peppers were whole still). I'm estimating there was about 5oz of peppers (2oz sauce). I should have weighed it, but the sauce made things more difficult and I forgot.

Okay, so this might sound gross to some, but during transfer to primary, I had some issues with the pepper bits clogging up my siphon big-time. I even had a net-bag over the end, which didn't help (usually works fine). Therefore, I said F-it and dumped the entire mess into the primary. So it's been sitting on those peppers the entire time. I have no idea how this is going to turn out.

I actually WANT some heat from it, that's why I wanted to add the adobo sauce. I'm a little worried the chipotles won't be enough spice to counteract the higher IBUs. I'm not a big hoppy beer fan. Anyway, I have a few jalapenos held until I transfer to 2ndary next weekend. I'm going to go ahead and roast in the oven, de-seed and de-vein, cut in half (avoid clogging issues), and soak in vodka until I need them. I'll taste the beer when it goes into 2ndary and make the call at that point.