Mango Chile Wheat

First off I want to say that I had two fantastic Wheat Beers with Chilies at NHC this year! I've already got my base Wheat Beer down, but I have never used Mangoes and/or chilies in a beer before. I plan to rack the beer over the Mangoes and let it go for 2 additional weeks. I will rack the finished beer into a keg with Ghost Chilies until I get the desired amount of heat.

My question is how many pounds of mango puree would be sufficient to give a nice sweetness that will counter the extreme heat of the Ghost Chilies but not cover up the fact that this is a wheat beer?

6 gallon batch
45.8% Pale Ale Malt (3L)
45.8% White Wheat Malt
8.3% Honey Malt
13.9 IBUs of Hersbrucker
WLP 320 American Hefeweizen Yeast

5 lbs of fresh Mango Puree? (Secondary)
4 Ghost Chilies (Keg)

Bump.... Nobody ever used Mango and Chilies?

CA_Mouse said:

Bump.... Nobody ever used Mango and Chilies?

Click to expand...

To your exact question, I have not. I have made a mango chile hef though. I use tea. Something similar to below. I have made a number of "tea infused" hefs and they have always turned out great. I throw all of the packets from one of those containers into the boil kettle just before flame out and let it steep for a few minutes. Works like a charm.

not made it, but man it sounds good!

There's a Mexican / South Texas thing...fresh fruit and chilli powder sprinkled on top. Sounds gross, tastes fantastic....cool sweet fruit with a sting of good chilli powder. Bet it would be awesome in a Wheat.

DeBrewer said:

To your exact question, I have not. I have made a mango chile hef though. I use tea. Something similar to below. I have made a number of "tea infused" hefs and they have always turned out great. I throw all of the packets from one of those containers into the boil kettle just before flame out and let it steep for a few minutes. Works like a charm.

Click to expand...

Interesting idea for a tea infused mead... I have a mead in the planning stage and was looking for different variations for 4 of the 5 gallons.

Mismost said:

not made it, but man it sounds good!

There's a Mexican / South Texas thing...fresh fruit and chilli powder sprinkled on top. Sounds gross, tastes fantastic....cool sweet fruit with a sting of good chilli powder. Bet it would be awesome in a Wheat.

Click to expand...

I had a Honey Wheat with Tai Chilies and a Raspberry Wheat with Serrano Chilies at NHC this year that inspired me. The Serrano Wheat was done by one of our members here that was kind enough to share his procedure with me.

IM not sure youd want the chilies in the keg. Id put them in the fermentor so you can take them out when you keg. Then add 1-2 more if needed in the keg. Ive had success with the fermentor addition but I bottled it. Be forewarned, My friend made a habanero spiked beer a while back and he said the bottom half of the keg was alcoholic hot sauce. Apparently a lot of the pepper particles or somethign must've settled to the bottom

m00ps said:

IM not sure youd want the chilies in the keg. Id put them in the fermentor so you can take them out when you keg. Then add 1-2 more if needed in the keg. Ive had success with the fermentor addition but I bottled it. Be forewarned, My friend made a habanero spiked beer a while back and he said the bottom half of the keg was alcoholic hot sauce. Apparently a lot of the pepper particles or somethign must've settled to the bottom

Click to expand...

Fresh chilies, de-seeded and pith removed, suspended in a nylon hop bag for less than 48 hours. No mess to settle to the bottom of the keg. Adding them to the fermenter gives the heat, but not the aroma. "Dry Peppering" allows me to get flavor and aroma and limit the amount of heat.

Appears that Ghost, Carolina Reaper and Scotch Bonnets all have such a high capsaicin level that there is very little perceivable flavor before the heat kicks in.

I think I'm going to go with .5# of mango per gallon of beer and use a dozen Habañeros.

CA_Mouse said:

Appears that Ghost, Carolina Reaper and Scotch Bonnets all have such a high capsaicin level that there is very little perceivable flavor before the heat kicks in.

I think I'm going to go with .5# of mango per gallon of beer and use a dozen Habañeros.

Click to expand...

A dozen is going to be A LOT.

IIRC, Ballast Point uses ~9 per BARREL for their habanero sculpin.

I would recommend at least 1.5-2lb per gallon as the chili will over power any mango flavor.

I use Costco frozen mango and give it a few seconds in the blender. Not to much of a purée.

AZ_IPA said:

A dozen is going to be A LOT.

IIRC, Ballast Point uses ~9 per BARREL for their habanero sculpin.

Click to expand...

I'm not planning on having them in the beer for very long. Just long enough to get the aroma and flavor and minimal heat. Probably less than 36 hours total exposure.

Because the capsaicin is alcohol soluble, the heat will transfer within a couple hours. That's been my experience anyways...

Last batch I made, I used 4 habaneros for ~24 hours. It wasn't quite enough, so I added 2 more for another 24 hours...

Of course, each habanero is different!

AZ_IPA said:

Because the capsaicin is alcohol soluble, the heat will transfer within a couple hours. That's been my experience anyways...

Last batch I made, I used 4 habaneros for ~24 hours. It wasn't quite enough, so I added 2 more for another 24 hours...

Of course, each habanero is different!

Click to expand...

are you removing the seed pods and pith? That is where most of the capsaicin is. I will start with 6 and see where it is after 24 hours and swap for more if needed. Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah, I get most of the ribs and seeds out. Much better flavor and less heat extraction that way...

I give them a rough chop also.

AZ_IPA said:

Yeah, I get most of the ribs and seeds out. Much better flavor and less heat extraction that way...

I give them a rough chop also.

Click to expand...

I was planning on chopping them about the way I like them in my Pico de Gallo!

I racked this onto 10 quartered Habañeros today. 6 hours later it has plenty of Habañero aroma and a mild amount of heat. I've already pulled the Habañeros and have started to carbonate the keg. Very interesting flavors and aromas. Mango/Pineapple with Citrus/Tangerine/Capsaicin aroma with a nice Mango/Pineapple taste with a light Pepper heat.