Chile Pepper IPA Experimentation

[Yreval]

Hey guys, my next project is an IPA where I want to play with the unorthodox (but not-unheard-of) addition of chile peppers to the beer. Now, I understand that you usually add fruit during secondary, and most chile beer recipes I've seen follow suit.

But I'm a little wary of adding peppers to my entire 5 gallon batch; it would be an awful shame if all of that beer turned out too hot or otherwise undrinkable. Moreover, I really want to play around with both the heat level and the type of chile without devoting dozens of gallons to the, well, niche experiment.

To that end, I want to know if it's reasonable to instead add individual slivers of various chile types and sizes to individual bottles of the beer. That way I can compare the different resulting flavors within one brew of one age, where the only real variable is the type and amount of chile used (and bottle a safe amount of "plain" IPA to boot.)

I don't have any good way of measuring the sugar content of little pieces of pepper, though, and I have no idea how much of that stuff is fermentable anyway. I don't want to end up overdoing the carbonation and have half of my bottles explode because I added bits of fresh (or dried) fruit to them. I also don't know if there are any other glaring reasons that this is a bad idea that are flying over my novice head.

 

[giraffe]

The sugar content of a small slice of pepper is going to be negligible. Infection would be a bigger concern, be as sterile as possible when slicing the peppers. While I havent done it, Id err on the side of caution and use less than you think you should in anything hotter than a jalapeno.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

One way to experiment would be to cut, roast, and soak the peppers in some vodka to reduce the heat then add to secondary or growler/bottle. The flavor will still come through nicely, and you can try this with a variety of different peppers. I think it'd be difficult to extrapolate any effects of a sliver of pepper in a bottle for a full sized batch, but you should get some idea of the effect on flavor contribution from different peppers.

 

[liquidlunch]

I agree make a potion with the vodka to help sanitize the peppers and maybe add in the secondary to taste.

 

[Yreval]

I had considered the tincture idea, and I think you're probably right about the results being a little more consistent and indicative that way than with little bits of pepper meat.

So I guess I'll try making a few strong infusions of different peppers and then "eye-droppering" them into individual bottles to play around. Should normal, 80-proof vodka do the trick and kill all the nasties the peppers might harbor? Or do I need stronger stuff to be really sanitary?

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Should normal, 80-proof vodka do the trick and kill all the nasties the peppers might harbor?

Yes.

 

[HopSong]

Question.. Do you like Jalap's?? I do.. but not that flavor in beer. I've had a few pepper beers.. some Jap's and some Seranno's (sp?). I like a pepper that adds a little heat but minute flavor. YMMV.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Question.. Do you like Jalap's?? I do.. but not that flavor in beer. I've had a few pepper beers.. some Jap's and some Seranno's (sp?). I like a pepper that adds a little heat but minute flavor. YMMV.

Just goes to show that it all comes down to preference. See, I like the flavor with just a sliver of heat in a chili beer. To do that, I actually discard the vodka that the peppers were soaking in prior to adding the peppers to my secondary.

If you just want the heat, I suppose you could just add the vodka tincture and not the peppers themselves. Not sure how much flavor ends up in that vodka solution since I've never tasted it myself.