Jalapeno Stale Ale?

I brewed a Jalapeno Ale a few months ago and steeped fresh jalapenos in the secondary. At first I was getting a nice, fresh jalapeno flavor. However I noticed after a month or so the flavor seems to be getting a bit "stale". Is it possible that the jalapeno juices in the beer are getting stale? I would have thought the alcohol would preserve it.

Anyone have any ideas?

well I might think that beers like this are better fresh and not aged. Anything below 10ABV has the potential of developing a few off flavors after "aging" for a minute. Maybe the jalepenos just don't have that long of a shelf life once introduced??. Some beers are good for drinking slowly other beers are great fresh. My opinion is that the latter may be true on this one, and as you said you were going for a "fresh spicy ale". In the words of Charlie P. "Beer is like food" some beers just don't hold up that long (Pliny the Elder for instance is best fresh as is Big Al Brewings 5 star ale which is very spicy). Thanks for posting this, my buddy and I have been growing habeneros for a spicy ale and this is definately a useful peice of info.

I may try roasting the jalapenos the next time I make this. Would be a good experiment to see if the cooking process "locks in" the flavors more than the raw pepper.

BoZzyFresh said:

well I might think that beers like this are better fresh and not aged. Anything below 10ABV has the potential of developing a few off flavors after "aging" for a minute. Maybe the jalepenos just don't have that long of a shelf life once introduced??. Some beers are good for drinking slowly other beers are great fresh. My opinion is that the latter may be true on this one, and as you said you were going for a "fresh spicy ale". In the words of Charlie P. "Beer is like food" some beers just don't hold up that long (Pliny the Elder for instance is best fresh as is Big Al Brewings 5 star ale which is very spicy). Thanks for posting this, my buddy and I have been growing habeneros for a spicy ale and this is definately a useful peice of info.

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That's not always the case...Charlies a little 30 years out of date, where somethings are concerned (see autolysis discussions for instance)...There's plenty of info on here about aging, and storing beers, aging beers to improve off flavors stuff like that.

But I don't believe that's the issue here, and this isn't the place to debate that issue anyway...there's other threads on here discussing that.

Secinarot, what did you do in terms of sanitizing the jalepenos. I'm wondering if that might be more of an issue here. Sanitization, if it's tasting "stale" it may be more of the fact that it is breaking down than anything else.

Because I do a Chocolate Mole Porter with a combination of my own chile powder (ancho, pasillo, dry chipotles, cayenne, mexican chocolate, cumin and cinnamon.) Finished with cayenne in the last 5 minutes of the boil...

It needed a lot of time to mellow the flavors, and to bring the heat down to a drinkable level (but as I have posted in the tap room, very recently...too many of them and it burns both coming in and going out...)

But I can assure you after 6 months in the bottle, it is very far from being "stale." In fact I just entered my last 4 bottles in two different BJCP contests. I wouldn't have done that if I didn't think it was up to snuff after 6 months of aging.

You may want to try steeping the peppers in vodka for a week before to steralize and then add the peppers and vodka to your secondary...The flavor may last longer without seeming to go "stale" with the pepper infused alcohol

Revvy said:

That's not always the case...Charlies a little 30 years out of date, where somethings are concerned (see autolysis discussions for instance)...There's plenty of info on here about aging, and storing beers, aging beers to improve off flavors stuff like that.

But I don't believe that's the issue here, and this isn't the place to debate that issue anyway...there's other threads on here discussing that.

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I do understand there may be more threads although I was simply stating my opinion on this situation via experiences I have had with other brewery's pepper beers and not simply through reading ........I.E. Big Al Brewing's 5 Star Ale,..etc, in general, I PERSONNALY find they are better fresh and again just an opinion when talking about light bodied pepper ales. As far as Charlie P being 30 years out of date this was something posted last week on twitter referring to an article he wrote on examiner.com...so not that out of date ....been reading the board almost a year and finally decided to post....always great info flyin around on here keep it up everyone!!!:rockin: