Brewing with hot sauce?

[idlehands212]

I recently brewed a jalapeno beer and was very pleased with the results, except it was lacking any kind of heat. The jalapeno flavor was exactly where I wanted it. Has anyone tried brewing with hot sauce? I saw some posts about using a tincture, but has it ever been tried in the boil or in the secondary? I'm a big fan of Frank's hot sauce and would like to make it an ingredient if possible.

Slainte!

 

[passedpawn]

Puree some cayennes, add vodka, drop in beer. If you want to just add the juice, add water instead of vodka and boil for 10 minutes, then blend with an immersion blender, strain and add the juice. I haven't added peppers to beer, but I do make hot sauce from my own peppers.

I'd start with a beer similar to what you plan on making (maybe a commercial beer, or a similar homebrew), carefully measure and add the hot sauce until you get it right. Then scale that measurement up to the full batch size.

 

[Citizen86]

I recently brewed a jalapeno beer and was very pleased with the results, except it was lacking any kind of heat. The jalapeno flavor was exactly where I wanted it. Has anyone tried brewing with hot sauce? I saw some posts about using a tincture, but has it ever been tried in the boil or in the secondary? I'm a big fan of Frank's hot sauce and would like to make it an ingredient if possible.

Slainte!

The problem with almost all hot sauces is they are vinegar based. Great on food, not so good in beer. You could probably jump throw a squirt in to a beer and find out how it works, but AFAIK people haven't had good results.

What passedpawn said is a better idea

 

[PKnotlost]

Get some "pure caspian". Not easy to find but you can I got mine in New Orleans. It's pure caspian oil. Be careful it's powerful enough stuff only a few drops.

 

[passedpawn]

Get some "pure caspian". Not easy to find but you can I got mine in New Orleans. It's pure caspian oil. Be careful it's powerful enough stuff only a few drops.

*Capsaicin. I've never seen that. Might be perfect for beer. For most other things, I think the flavor of the pepper is desirable.

 

[tootal]

It sounds like you removed the seeds from the jalapenos. That's what we did and we liked it a lot. To increase the heat you could get a few more peppers and take the seeds and soak them in vodka for a few days and then taste it and see if the heat comes through. I've made several different kinds of extracts this way with great results. Worth a shot!

 

[passedpawn]

Seeds aren't the hot part. It's the ribs on the inside of peepers that contain the capsaicin.

 

[Scuba_Steve81]

Yes, bad rumor... The seeds contain no heat. It is the ribs that the seeds attach to that contain most of the heat. If a seed is hot, it us only because it got some oil from the ribs on it.

I would suggest against using pure capsasium btw... If you must, look up a more suitable product such as pure evil drops. I think they rate at 9.6m shu, and the weaker version rates at about 1.5m shu. Still, even a few drops of 9.6 could overpower a batch for most people.

I suggest processing raw peppers as posted above. Dried peppers would probably work even better. If you want some real heat, use habaneros instead. Skip jalapenos and serranos. For a 5g batch, I am sure you would need a lot to get any real heat. Even better, try to find someone who grows a lot of peppers. I would stay away from superhots at first. Some good choices for flavor and heat would be Bahamian goats, Scotch bonnets, Fataliis, Aji cito, Aji limon, Chocolate habaneros. There are a bunch more, but those are all among the most flavorful.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Add Belgian Candied Sugar; more sugar = more alcohol = more heat.

Maybe a different, spicier hop, too.

 

[idlehands212]

I did not know that... I always assumed the seeds are where the heat comes from. We tried a drop of some scorpion pepper hot sauce in a sample of the beer and it was great. It had that slight lingering burn in the back of your throat... which is what I'm looking for. Thanks for all the advice. Guess I'll have to brew it again (damn) with some recipe tweeks.