Maple Chipotle Amber Ale Attempt

Brand new to this forum although I have been using the site as a resource for some time. I've only recently gotten back into brewing and have moved away from beer kits to begin with partial mashes...much more rewarding!

This is my first 'experimental' brew...I am more interested in taking risks now as opposed to creating something I know will turn out exactly as I would expect. Any feedback on this recipe is appreciated, currently the beer is at day 2 of a 7 day primary fermentation.

4) Maple-Chipotle Amber Ale

- 3kg Liquid Malt Extract
- 500g Munich Malt
- 250g Pale Malt
- 250g Crystal 80L
- 30g Fuggles Hops @ 60min
- 30g Fuggles Hops @ 10min
- 1080mL (36 fl. Oz.) Pure Maple Syrup @ Flameout
- 50g Dried Chipotle Peppers (from Maya store near Jean-Talon market) @ Flameout
- 15g Dried Morita Peppers (from Maya) @ Flameout
- White Labs WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast

Starting Gravity: ~1.070


1) Mashed grains at 70C in 10L water for 1 hour.
2) Sparged with 5L of water at 70C.
3) Dissolved 2kg of LME into brewpot, started boil and followed hop additions.
4) Turned off heat and added 1kg LME, maple syrup, then the peppers.
5) Cooled in sink to 24C, spooned out the peppers and placed them into the primary. Strained out hops and sparged with remaining water into primary.
6) Pitched yeast at ~22C, stored primary in bedroom; temperature the day after was steady at 20C.

I have no clue on this one. I'd be interested to hear how it turns out though.

I made a maple chipotle amber ale back in july...came out pretty good. i wasn't quite sure where i could get good chipotles from in my area so i ended up going with jalapenos and smoked malt to kind of make up for it. here's my recipe.

4lbs light munich
2 lbs 2 row
2lbs briess cherrywood smoked malt
1 lb crystal 80
32 oz dark amber maple syrup
5 oz roasted jalapenos

i then "dry hopped" with the peppers, 2.5 oz for 9 days then 3 oz for 7 days.

I found that I could not taste the maple syrup at all. It was pretty spicey and a little smokey although the smokeyness faded with time. In the end, I would've held back a bit on the peppers, upped the smoked malt and maybe just forgot all about the maple syrup, because not only is it very expensive, it's also difficult to get that maple flavor to stand out amongst strong flavors like smoke and spice.

oh and i used pacman yeast and got an og of 1.060 and a fg of 1.010 giving me an abv of 6.7%

and i also forgot the hops. i did 1 oz of chinook pellets at 60 min

Hmm, interesting. I was figuring that the maple syrup would likely not come through as much as I would want, but I had to give it a try, being a huge maple enthusiast. I imagine that the syrup will impact the palate of the final beer to some degree, leaving behind some traces of non-fermentable sugars and aromatics. I was considering adding smoked malts but then I would have missed out on the true influence of the chipotle peppers.

Opening up the primary briefly I can pick up aromas of sweet woodiness and earthy smoke; hoping this carries through to the bottling.

Try and use some maple for bottling. Most of the maple flavor will likely driven off during primary. I added 24oz after primary fermentation and also added some at bottling. It came through nicely.

I may try using some syrup at the bottling stage...I sampled a little and it's got plenty of smoky/earthy notes with a nice tingling heat, not much maple coming through and seems a little drying. I thought I could compensate for this by mashing at a higher temperature. Just checked the gravity and I'm at 1.040 after nearly one week in primary; expecting 1.020. There is still a 1 inch thick dark brown krausen atop the beer. I suppose I should leave this batch in the primary another week until the yeast fully attenuates? My terminal gravity is usually hit after only a few days with other types of yeast I've used.

Let it sit for 2/3 weeks. Also depending on whether or not you added the syrup to the kettle will change things. I added mine to secondary and had to actually stir the sugar up twice because it settled at the bottom in a layer. Once I got it back up in suspension the yeast consumed the syrup. I had mine in secondary for over a month because I kept having co2 coming out of solution and my gravity was changing ever so slightly.

Sounds good, I'll just need to take it easy and let the yeast run its course. Will I even need a secondary fermentation stage if I leave it for 3 weeks? My only reservation with extending the primary fermentation is due to wanting to preserve as much maple character as possible by moving it into secondary. I added all my syrup at the end of the boil to keep things simpler and to have all the sugars present and fully dissolved. There has to be a first try for everything I guess!

After 3 days straight (10 total days in primary), the gravity remained at 1.030...so I decided to rack it over to secondary. Filtered out all the peppers and as many seeds as I could. It actually tastes pretty good so far...pretty excited to see how it conditions. I've got some fairly vigorous bubbling going on in the secondary though. I am aware that this does not necessarily represent fermentation, although I am still under the impression that my FG was a little too high. Is it possible that racking roused the yeast to metabolize the little amount of sugars left in the wort?

what temp is it at right now?

Last time I checked it was at 70F. There is a thin layer of froth on top that formed a few hours after the transfer, not really a krausen, but enough to make me think there is still some fermenting to be done.

Well 1.030 is pretty high for FG. You did mash pretty high though so that may leave you with some residual sugar. A lot of people would advocate gently rocking your fermenter not sure that I personally would do it. I would certainly give it more time just so you make sure it's finished.

I'll leave it in secondary for 2 weeks, by then everything should quiet down. Homebrewing is always an exercise in patience!

Alright, so I needed to leave the beer in secondary for a total of 4 weeks before the yeast began to flocculate; hit an FG of 1.010. I transferred to bottles and the first 2 weeks showed very little signs of carbonation, a slight hissing upon opening and that was about it. I am now sampling the beer on the third week and am very surprised by the results! Nice thick 1 inch head, spotty lacing, strong earthy and smoked wood notes in the nose. Still tastes a little sweet, likely because carbonation has not yet been completed. Not quite sure what to think about it overall, it's a strange brew indeed! I think I would add a bit more hops next time, maybe some peated malt to add further depth to the smoky character. Either way, I'm sure it will benefit from a long aging time...man I love homebrewing.

I'm glad you're happy with your results! At 2 weeks in the bottle, it's still young so give it more time and the flavors will meld together. This beer will probably be very interesting to age.