Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Habanero IPA

EDIT: I've made this beer many times now, and it's won many awards, including Gold Medals in both the First and Final Rounds at the 2014 National Homebrewers Competition; some minor changes to the original recipe are incorporated below....

14lbs 2-row (adjust as needed for your efficiency to hit the OG)
1.25lb crystal 20L
1lb carapils
0.5lb caravienne

Mash at 155*F for 60 minutes

1.5oz Amarillo mash hop
0.5oz Warrior @60
0.25oz Magnum @60
0.25oz Columbus @60
0.25oz Northern Brewer @60
0.25oz Crystal @30
0.25oz Centennial @30
0.25oz Simcoe @30
1.5oz Amarillo @0

2oz Simcoe (dry - 5-7 days)
4oz Amarillo (dry - 5-7 days)

WLP001 with a ~1500mL starter

Ferment for 10-14 days @ 64*F
Dry hop for 5-7 days
Dry "pepper" with ~3.0 grams* per gallon of deveined and deseeded habanero peppers for 5 days (you can dry pepper and dry hop at the same time if you want, but if you use hop bags, don't include the peppers in those; they get caught up in hop sludge and won't release as much of their heat/flavor/aroma)

This is based off the various Ballast Point Sculpin IPA clones that are out there. It's won medals at several local and national competitions.

Tasting notes:
A great beer with IPA highlights and guest star of habanero!!!
Very good pepper beer. Perfect balance of IPA and spicy habanero




* notes on peppers: because the heat in peppers is so variable, start with ~3.0g per gallon. After ~5 days taste it. If you need more heat add more habaneros or some serranos (these add a good neutral heat with a slight touch of grassiness that works well with the hops) and sample again after a couple of days. The heat will mellow over time, so you want to bottle/keg when it's slightly hotter than you want the finished product to be.

This sounds right up my alley. I'm gonna try a 2 gallon test batch ASAP.

Question: did you cook the peppers or put them in vodka before adding them? Or will the alcohol in the beer kill everything?

Thanks!

I did not cook the pepper or use vodka. I did squirt it with a little starsan though.

I hope you enjoy it! I'll probably make a gallon or so from every IPA batch from now on. It went way to fast!!

I made one like this recently and it turned out great as well. I had about 200+ Habaneros this year so I dried them seeds and all and ground them into dust. I used 1oz to dry hop but i have no idea how many peppers that equated to. How much did 1.4g equal out to pepperwise?

It was around 1/3-1/2 a pepper. Of course, size and heat levels vary, so your mileage may vary.

This sounds awesome, I will be brewing this in the next week or so.

Just finished fermentation and need some clarification on when you added the peppers.

You mention this option
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days @ 64*F
Additional Fermentation: 5 days (dry pepper)
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 12 days (dry hop)

But then have this as well.
Ferment for 10-14 days @ 64*F
Dry hop for 12 days
Dry "pepper" with 1.4 grams of deveined and deseeded habanero peppers per gallon for 5 days

So do I "dry pepper" for an additional 5 days in primary? Or Dry hop for 12 days before I add the peppers for 5 days?

I'm excited to try this and want to make sure I get it right.

Yeah, looks like the autoformat switches things...

I like to dry hop first, then dry pepper. Though you could do both at the same time if you wanted more heat.

How did this beer come out heat-wise? I know it is subjective, but I went with your ratio just today on a Smoked Habanero IPA that used some smoked malts as well as Simcoe.

I read a few other posts though and it seems this may be a ton of habaneros. I was thinking of letting it rest on top for 5 days (7g total in 5 gallons), but don't want to end up overpowered.

Thoughts on your results?

I think the 1.4g per gallon is a good starting point. My palate personally prefers more, but at 1.4, it's noticeable, complimentary, but not overpowering.

Let me know how it turns out!

Habaneros are a very oily pepper. Do you have any issues with that?

pentiumone133 said:

Habaneros are a very oily pepper. Do you have any issues with that?

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Nope.

This sounds awesome. I'm gonna have to try one of these soon. Do you have issues with clarity from the peppers? Is an enzyme needed?

Shred said:

This sounds awesome. I'm gonna have to try one of these soon. Do you have issues with clarity from the peppers? Is an enzyme needed?

Click to expand...

Nope, no issues with clarity or head retention.

Has anyone else made this recently? I'm torn between this recipe and a jalapeno cream ale for my next batch...

This has an interesting hop schedule. What do you feel you gain by having such a diversity of bittering addition hops?

A lot of times on this site you'll see one, maybe two additions for 30 mins or longer and it usually only consists of 1 or 2 hop varieties. Here you've got 3+ varieties at both 30 and 60 mins.

Getting ready to do an IIPA modification of this. Can I ask how the pepper was prepared? Did you chop it up or just throw in whole peppers/large pieces? (not sure it matters).

I posted this in the extract brewing forum but didn't get any action... maybe this is a better place being that this thread is what inspired this recipe.

Any thoughts on this?

This is my first big beer. I don't generally enjoy beers containing the word "Imperial" as most seem too sweet for my pallet. That being said, I am a bit of a hop head and I want to make monster beer for this summer.

I'm aiming to offset any residual sweetness with hops and spice.

Understanding this is going to cost about $1.60/bottle to make, it's okay that it won't be easy drinking, but I want it to be drinkable... better still - I want it to taste awesome!.

Am I overdoing it with the hops at 112 IBUs? Recommended changes?

1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L [Steep @155 30 min]

3 lbs Light Dry Extract [Boil for 75 min]

1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 75.0 min
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min

3.3 lbs Rye LME (Briess) [Boil for 20 min]
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min

3 lbs Light Dry Extract [Boil for 15 min]

1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min

1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min

2.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272)

2.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days
1.00 oz Ahtanum [6.00 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days

0.25 oz Habanero Peppers (Secondary 5.0 days)

Est Original Gravity: 1.076 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.6 %
Bitterness: 112.8 IBUs
Est Color: 12.8 SRM

Brickwalker said:

This has an interesting hop schedule. What do you feel you gain by having such a diversity of bittering addition hops?

A lot of times on this site you'll see one, maybe two additions for 30 mins or longer and it usually only consists of 1 or 2 hop varieties. Here you've got 3+ varieties at both 30 and 60 mins.

Click to expand...

It's based on the Ballast Point Sculpin IPA clone that's floating around.

The cluster%#&* of hops adds a nice complexity.

Shred said:

Getting ready to do an IIPA modification of this. Can I ask how the pepper was prepared? Did you chop it up or just throw in whole peppers/large pieces? (not sure it matters).

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I cut off the top, halve, pull out seeds & ribs, and do a rough chop. Small enough to increase surface area, but big enough to avoid clogging the auto siphon. I'll post a pick soon, as I'm bottling some tonight.

Shred said:

I posted this in the extract brewing forum but didn't get any action... maybe this is a better place being that this thread is what inspired this recipe.

Any thoughts on this?

This is my first big beer. I don't generally enjoy beers containing the word "Imperial" as most seem too sweet for my pallet. That being said, I am a bit of a hop head and I want to make monster beer for this summer.

I'm aiming to offset any residual sweetness with hops and spice.

Understanding this is going to cost about $1.60/bottle to make, it's okay that it won't be easy drinking, but I want it to be drinkable... better still - I want it to taste awesome!.

Am I overdoing it with the hops at 112 IBUs? Recommended changes?

Click to expand...

I haven't used rye, so I can't comment much, but I'd move that 20 minute simcoe addition to ten minutes or later. That'll drop your IBUs a bit and keep some of that simcoe goodness. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. With 10 minutes or less, will I still get nice flavor additions? I'm still testing the waters with hop schedules... to date, I've been sticking to the 60, 20, 5 or 0 schedule for bittering, flavor, aroma.

This recipe has been floating around now for sometime and as is, it's awesome. Have fun changing things up but as it's written it's an awesome beer - with or without the habanero.

Shred said:

Thanks for the reply. With 10 minutes or less, will I still get nice flavor additions? I'm still testing the waters with hop schedules... to date, I've been sticking to the 60, 20, 5 or 0 schedule for bittering, flavor, aroma.

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Unless you're chilling extremely quick, you'll get some flavor from a 10 minute addition, in my experience.

Here's the chop I use for the habanero(s).

Not sure if this helps at this point, but I am brewing a Sculpin clone with Habaneros right now.. I simply racked from primary onto the habaneros into secondary. I pureed 5 peppers (whole minus the stems, about 35-45g) in a sanitized blender and after 36 hours on the peppers it has noticeable taste and heat.

I plan on leaving it on the peppers for another 12-24 hours and see where I'm at. I like a lot of heat, and I don't plan on sharing this batch with anyone, so I'm not worrying about offending, although you can go to hell with a joke. Although.. since I pureed it, I may get some pepper transfer into the finished batch unless I filter it out.. gonna be a bruiser!

After I'm at my heat/flavor level, I plan on racking into tertiary for dry hopping, since I don't want to be on the peppers for that long. After I figure out how long I need to dry pepper (something that may always fluctuate a little depending on the varying heat of the peppers I use), then maybe I can hop and pepp at the same time.

That's gonna be a hot one for sure! Good luck!!

Just tossed the peppers in my IIPA (which is currently dry hopping). I did 8.5 grams to 5 gallons. Gonna bottle this monster on Monday

I bottled my Habanero IIPA tonight. Snuck a taste too. It's really amazing how much the little bit of pepper completely changes the flavor and aroma profiles of the beer. It's definitely a pepper beer, but not too spicy by any stretch of the imagination (I may double the peppers next time).

Thanks again for the advice and ratios!

I really want to brew this again. Soon, very soon.

Trace said:

I really want to brew this again. Soon, very soon.

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It is one of my on deck brews for sure!

My Habanero Imperial IPA just came of age this week. I thought it came out so good I brought it to one of the certified judges at my LHBS and his response was "Definitely get this entered in some competitions." Your ratio of peppers was perfect to give it great aroma and flavor without a lot of heat, just a nice warming effect. Thanks again AZ!

OK newbie question. Primary fermentation 10 days. Rack to secondays and let it sit dry hopping for 12 days and then 5 days on the peppers for a total of 27 days in fermentation?

and if converting to extract these are basically steeping grains?

1.25lb crystal 20L
1lb carapils
0.5lb caravienne

Bleedsblue said:

OK newbie question. Primary fermentation 10 days. Rack to secondays and let it sit dry hopping for 12 days and then 5 days on the peppers for a total of 27 days in fermentation?

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Yep, ~27 days from production to bottling/kegging.

Bleedsblue said:

and if converting to extract these are basically steeping grains?

1.25lb crystal 20L
1lb carapils
0.5lb caravienne

Click to expand...

Yep.

what about just tossing the little bit of habanero into primary after the fermentation has finished, and then racking to keg for dry hops after ~5 days? assuming you're not repitching the yeast, any drawbacks to that?

Congratulations on winning your award. I will have to add this to the list of beers to brew.

Congrats on gold! Curious whether the winning batch had 1.4g per gallon per recipe or 2.8g per your preference.

Ya know, the last few times I've made this, I've gone by taste rather than weight.

I'll start with ~3g per gallon and let it sit for ~5 days. If it's not hot enough, I'll add more (including some serranos for a slightly different heat/flavor/aroma) and check it every couple of days until it is where I want it, or even just a bit hotter. A warm, young, uncarbed sample will be hotter than a cold, carbed, aged one.

I'll get around to updating the first post soon to reflect some new information I've learned over the years of making this!

Looks great thanks for sharing. Do you have approximate ibus or AA for your hop additions?

doublehaul said:

Looks great thanks for sharing. Do you have approximate ibus or AA for your hop additions?

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It's varied every time I've made it but it's usually around:

Amarillo - 9.2% AA
Columbus - 15.3% AA
Northern Brewer - 9.6% AA
Magnum - 15% AA
Warrior - 18% AA
Crystal - 4.1%AA
Centennial - 8.9% AA
Simcoe - 13.2% AA

I updated the original post to include some minor changes to the hops and some additional advice on pepper use.

Awesome thanks!