Hot peppers ale

A friend of mine asked me to brew a hot peppers ale for his birthday which is in late february. I never put peppers in my beers and would like to try that. Any idea? I want something good and drinkable. I thought I could use rye or maybe smoked malt for this brew but Im open to any idea. I have Piquin Chili (or Bird's eye chili) in stock but can get anything from there http://www.epicesdecru.com/en/store.php?cid=3

Thanks for your help!

DrAtomik, Funny thing you mention that... A few months ago I brewed a batch of Mr. Beer's Fire in the Hole Chile beer.
http://www.mrbeer.com/product-exec/product_id/250/nm/Fire_in_the_Hole_Chile_Beer
For the 2 gal batch, I added 2/3 oz. of dried Panca and 2/3 oz. of dried smoked serrano chiles. It sat in the primary for a month and should be sitting in the bottles for another two weeks (1 month bottle time). I tried one last night and it was great. Not too much heat and a subtle smokey flavor.

I did a chocolate chipotle porter some time back. I used about 4 smoked chipotle peppers (the dried from the store kind), and about 3 anchos (again dried from the store). I boiled them a little bit which I think may have taken away from the heat. I racked the beer onto the peppers and tea that I boiled them in and let the beer sit on them for about 5 days. When all was said and done the flavors of the chilis could be tasted but none of the heat. If I had to do it again and wanted heat I would probably add more peppers and do it directly not boiling first, and probably for a longer period of time taking a sample every so often until the desired heat is reached. Even though it didn't have heat the flavor of the beer was amazing. The chipotles really gave the beer a smoky flavor.

I can't speak highly enough about this recipe
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/jalapeno-cream-ale-131294/

<3 for ancho/roasted serrano or ancho/habanero

You might also want to check out this thread
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/5x-pepper-beers-172082/ pete

Bird, chiltepin, and pequin peppers are quite hot. You may get a little more heat than needed unless the recipe calls for a small amount of peppers.

I made a Jalapeno hefeweizen a couple of years ago that turned out really well. I used about 10 jalapenos, roasted, skinned, and deseeded with the inner membrane removed. Very subtle heat and a great roasted pepper flavor. I put them into the secondary for a couple of weeks. The flavor was subtle enough that it was tough to figure out what it was, but you knew there was something there other than just the beer!

I did a Sriracha Pepper beer a few months ago. All I did was brew a light base beer 10lbs 2-row, 1 lb of Cara pils, 2 oz Cascade (1oz@60 1oz@5) and US-05. Then I put 2 Table spoons of Sriracha Sauce in Primary and another 2 Table Spoons in Secondary.

Kegged and served @ Emerald Coast Beer Festival... It was a hit! Not to hot, but had a good tang and some smokeyness from the Sauce.

Thank you guys, I really appreciate your suggestions. So far I'm tempted by the jalapeno cream ale gicts suggested. However i'd like to know if anyone has ever brew a rye beer with chilis because theres a microbrewery over here called Dieu Du Ciel who brews a rye beer with black peppercorns and I love it. The rye seems to marry very well with the taste of the peppercorns and I wonder if I could get good results with chilis as well.

Here's the link for the Dieu Du Ciel's brew if anyone is interessed.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/dieu-du-ciel-route-des-epices/15138/