Help with chile beer recipe and pepper prep

My friend has requested that I make him a chile beer using his homegrown anaheim peppers. My friend pointed out a local chile beer he has tried and liked: http://coopersmithspub.com/Beers/sigdas-green-chile/

Sigda’s Green Chile
Malts: Pale
Hops: Cluster, Tettnang
Yeast: English Ale
O.G. 12.8 Plato F.G. 1.7 Plato
IBUs: 15


While I don't need to make an exact clone, I want to make something along the lines of this beer. I've never had this beer, but on the surface it looks like a basic blonde with little hop presence.

I'm still very new at this, but took a stab at a recipe: http://hopville.com/recipe/1614251/spice-herb-or-vegetable-beer-recipes/chile-beer

4.5 gallons

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
IBUs: 16

6.25 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs Pale LME
.5 lb C-10

.4 oz Cluster @ 60
.25 oz Cluster @ 20

Wyeast British Ale 1098

I'm a partial mash brewer and can handle up to about 7 lbs of grain. Thoughts on the overall recipe? The Coopersmith's beer finishes below 1.008, so I'm wondering how to do that myself. Use sugar in the recipe (never done this)? Mash super low (maybe 147-148)?

Any comment on the hop selection? My LHBS sells hops in 2oz packages, so I'd like to limit the hop purchase to only 1 as to not be wasteful. Additionally, I have 1.5oz of Opal and .5oz of Saaz at home already and could use those if they would work ok. My LHBS has a decent selection of hops, but not sure if they have Cluster. Just in case, thoughts on using Mt Hood, Nugget, or something along those lines if that's what's in stock?

Finally, it looks like the best way to do this is let it ferment out then transfer to secondary with the peppers. My friend wants flavor and a little bit of heat. Certainly not a bunch of heat. Any input as to how much peppers to use? How do I prep them (I've read about people soaking in vodka, chopping, freezing, etc but there seems to be no consensus)?

Thanks in advance.

I recently did a Hot Blonde Ale with jalapenos and ran into the same issues regarding lack of consensus on how to add the peppers. Like so many things in brewing, it seems that there is no one "right" way to do it, so I'll just let you know what I did:

I cut my peppers in half lengthwise and then into roughly 3/4" slices to expose plenty of surface area, then soaked them in vodka. I left the seeds and membranes intact, as this is where a lot of the heat lives. I used "regular" 80-proof vodka, but presumably a higher-proof would be a more effective solvent if you wanted to spend the $$$- I just used what I had in the house and it worked well enough, maybe just took longer to get the full extraction than it would with a higher proof. I did 2 or 3 jalapenos in about a pint of vodka and let them soak for about 10 days, then poured it through a coffee filter to strain out the peppers and seeds, leaving just the infused vodka.

As far as getting it into the beer, I added the infusion at bottling time- you've already extracted the flavor with the vodka, so you really aren't gaining anything by adding it earlier. I filled a glass with 12 oz of beer (one bottle's worth) and added the infusion with an eyedropper a little at a time, tasting between additions to see how much would give me the flavor and heat I was looking for. I wound up using about 20mL/bottle, so you can add it by the dropperful- no need to go drop-by-drop unless you're using some really insanely hot peppers. This method worked well and gave me excellent flavor and good heat. One warning though- the flavor remained stable, but the heat diminished a bit in the bottle, so you might want to make it a bit hotter than you think you're going to want it if you use this method.

However, you choose to "pepper" your beer, I hope it turns out great! Enjoy!

Thanks for the input. I wasn't entirely sure what the vodka method was trying to accomplish, but it sounds like it just pulls out the pepper flavor which you then add directly to the beer.

Anyone have any experience adding peppers straight to the secondary? Is one method better than the other?

What about thoughts on the beer recipe itself?

I'm trying to figure this out myself, but as far as the theory goes I can offer some advice. Dropping peppers straight into secondary will pull some oils out (it is alcohol, after all) but not as much as the vodka will. Oils are insoluble in water, but they are soluble in alcohol. Beer has enough alcohol to dissolve some of the oils, vodka has more alcohol and will therefore pull out more oils. My favorite local brewery made a special red ale with chilis that they soaked in Everclear (nearly pure alcohol), probably for maximum dissolution and minimum taste from the solvent. I'll probably end up doing the vodka method as it's cheaper. I like Heady's idea of testing a bit at a time at bottling, that's where I was leaning as well. It's good to see a real number of chilis to use (5? 50?) as I had no idea where to start. I'm more looking for heat to chase the malt flavor of an India Red Ale I just brewed, so I may even go with a habanero or ghost chili instead. Like I said, I have no idea what I'm doing, so it will be a learning process.

P.S. - If you do want to add chilis to the secondary, you have the benefit of being able to taste-test the flavor and heat along the way, and then you can rack and bottle as soon as it's to your liking. I'm too impatient to wait x weeks for my beer, but it's probably the best way to know how it's all going to balance out.

I've had that coopersmith beer. It definitely has the taste of hatch chiles (or a comparable chile) but some serious heat behind it. I would suspect you could get the same effect by adding some to secondary for flavor and aroma but also making an addition towards the end of the boil for heat. Maybe jalepeno or serrano at 10 minutes before the end of the boil and hatch chiles or something similar (like anaheim or poblano) in secondary. I'm not sure how much to add for heat, since I don't do that, but I use 14 hatch chiles per five gallons of beer. I remove the seeds and the ends, cut in strips then freeze. Thaw and add. You can simmer them in a little water for 10-20 minutes to pasteurize at 165F if you are concerned about contamination.

Brewpastor also has a recipe for chile beer that might be worth looking at.