How do I brew using Chili peppers

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Sorry. I hit send by mistake. Anyway, I want to brew a Mayan hot chocolate inspired brew. It'll basically be a chocolate stout brewed with chili pepper and cinnamon. However, I have never used chili pepper in a recipe before and I'm unsure how to go about it. Do I use extract, powder or actual peppers? How much do I need? I know that I'll probably have to brew the recipe a few times to perfect it but I would love some advice from brewers in the community more knowledgeable than myself on the subject. I'll be brewing a five gallon batch.
 
I have a buddy who make a killer chill pepper pale ale. His process is to rack beer to secondary then clean, section and soak peppers in cheap vodka for a bit to kill off anything then add peppers to the secondary for a couple of weeks. How much and how long is up to your pallet.
 
The last time I did it, I did an 11% imperial Stout and added 8oz of Cocoa Nibs and 8oz of Dried Anchos to the Secondary after sanitizing both in Vodka. I let it sit for about a month then bottled, it came out really nice, a good level of peppery heat and flavor, I should have used a bit more chocolate, its there but gets buried by the Peppers.
 
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