Jalapeno beer - citra or cream ale?

hi everyone - im looking at making a jalapeno ale, preferably an IPA or similar. I'm fairly new to the brewing so i think an citra IPA or cream ale kit would work well and then maybe dry-hop the jalapenos in secondary.

anyone think this would work well? I did read a lot about this and it seems that is the best way to go but i wanna see which kit would likely work best with the jalapeno flavor. I mainly am looking for a bit of flavor and some heat, but nothing over-board as far as heat. I was thinking maybe 1 pepper per gallon, sliced and dry hopped for about a week.

I do think i will only do half of it with the jalepeno so that if i don't like the flavor too much, i can still have a nice ale.

Anyone have any thoughts? thanks!

I had one commercial jalapeno ale and the bar could not give it away, your mouth was on fire after drinking a couple ounces. I would start w/ less peppers, and take a sample after a couple days. You can always add more.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/jalapeno-cream-ale-131294/

Quite a good discussion on Jalapeno Cream Ale. It's going to be my next brew.

If you are set on one or the other I would say the cream ale kit would be the best bet. I would think the amount of hops in the IPA, regardless of type would conflict with the Jalapenos.
A guy in my club brews a fantastic jalapeno pilsner..he cuts up three, or four fresh peppers and then essentially uses them in lieu of dry hopping. He told me he used to sample everyday, but now he finds three days is the magic number. The finished product is all pilsner up front, and a nice mellow jalapeno in the back end..little to no heat.

I would go with IPA....

here is what I did with habanero, I sliced one up and soaked it in vodka for a day or two. Added the vodka, which had absorbed the heat, to the beer to taste in the bottling bucket. Was able to target a slight heat on the back-end but very drinkable.

Good luck!

schiersteinbrewing said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/jalapeno-cream-ale-131294/

Quite a good discussion on Jalapeno Cream Ale. It's going to be my next brew.

Click to expand...

I did read through that, that looks interesting as well, might try something similar when i step up to all grain.

I feel that either could work well, but for some reason i wanna lean towards the IPA. Think the citra though would take the jalapeno flavor out? I do want a bit of heat on the back but still a bit of flavor. If not citra maybe an imperial?

Appreciate all the responses, going to have to look into how i add the jalepeno for sure

I'm not sure how it would behave in an IPA or strongly flavored beer, but I really like how it's the focus of my "cream ale." It's a little too high in ABV t truly be a cream ale, but it's quite tasty!

I was looking for a moderate amount of heat, and it's almost there. I don't want it to be like taking a bite out of a fresh jalapeño as I'll want to drink several of them, and I intend to up it one jalapeño.

I'm still waiting for it to finish conditioning so I can toss a 12 pack in the fridge (Mon)!

I've made a very nice honey ale that would likely be complemented well with jalapeños.

Maybe a dark beer with a strong smokey flavor and use chipotles?

Let us know how this turns out. I wanna try a jalepeno ale one of these days. There's a commercial craft brewery in my state called rouge brewery. They make a awesome chipotle ale. Would like to attemt a clone of that as well. Its delicious