Esters in Beer and Adding Hot Peppers

[JonGrafto]

This is kind of a 2-part question.

I brewed 10 gallons of a Bells Oberon clone a few months back.

Initially, it turned out pretty darn good. Not an exact clone but scored well at our homebrew club competition.

Fast forward a few months.

I have 2 kegs carbonated and hooked up in my kegerator. Now both kegs taste fruity. I am thinking that the hops involved died out and the esters are becoming more dominant? Temps were kept in the low 60's during fermentation. No infections. The only thing that I can guess is that it may have been a low yeast pitch due to harvesting the dregs from the Oberon bottles. Any thoughts on this?

2nd part of the question - I want to add some spice to one of the kegs. I think the heat of some jalapenos or habaneros would work well with the fruity esters that are currently showing up. What is the best way to do this on an already carbonated keg?

I was thinking of taking a hop bag and just dropping the peppers in the keg (I can always recarbonate the keg)
or making a vodka tincture of the peppers and dumping that in the keg.

Sorry for the long-winded post.

 

[Homercidal]

I have not brewed a clone (yet) but Oberon definitely has a fruity taste. I think that when it's fresh, the firm hop flavor and bitter mask it a bit, but it's been noted to have plenty of citrus from the yeast and grains and hops. I can see where the hops fading might amplify those flavors.

I added .5 ounces of sliced habanero to the dry hop on an IPA I brewed last weekend. I got the amount by following AZ_IPA's recommendation in his award winning recipe. You can find that in the recipe area. Lots of discussion on it there.

I think the habanero won't add much flavor when compared to a pepper like the jalapeno, which is less spicy. That's one reason I went with habanero, as I've had a few pepper beers and tend to appreciate the ones that aren't as strongly flavored, yet give a bit of warmth in the finish, which builds over the time you drink the glass.

If I had something already in the keg, I'd use a bag and tie it off on the keg handle using unflavored dental floss. It's thin enough to keep from leaking your CO2 and lets you easily retrieve the bag when you reach terminal scoville. Remember to us a sanitized butter knife or marble to weight the bag down.

 

[Temptd2]

We've had the best luck using a tincture made with peppers and vodka. That way, you can add it til you like the flavor/burn, rather than tossing in a pepper or six and hoping for the best.

We make our own Peppar vodka clone anyway - I take two Serrano peppers, cut off the tops, quarter lengthwise, and put them in a 750-ml bottle, fill with vodka, let sit a week before using. I never do take the peppers out of the bottle, they will leach out their flavors/capsaicin and then there isn't any more to leach. This stuff is AWESOME to make Bloody Marys!

When I make a pepper tincture, I use a LOT more peppers and about 2 cups of vodka - makes a very strong solution, easy to add a couple tablespoons or so at a time til you get it where you want it.

 

[JonGrafto]

Thanks gents... I think that I am going to just drop peppers in and keep tasting until my desired heat is reached.

I also think that I am going to "dry hop" in the other keg to try something different. Worst comes to worst, I end up either drinking ****ty beer or dumping it.

Oberon is 100X better when fresh. I will remember that for next time.

 

[JonGrafto]

Added in 2 oz of Amarillo hops to one keg and then I added 6 Super Chili peppers split in half into the 2nd keg.

2nd keg with peppers only had about 1/3rd left and the first keg that I dry hopped was about 3/4 full

 

[JonGrafto]

Taste tested one day in and the pepper beer is actually pretty damn good. The Amarillo hops on the other meg are starting to come through as well. Another few days in each.

 

[Homercidal]

Taste tested one day in and the pepper beer is actually pretty damn good. The Amarillo hops on the other meg are starting to come through as well. Another few days in each.

Nice! I should taste mine tonight or tomorrow. Still got a couple of weeks before the competition, but I don't' want to overdo it.

 

[JonGrafto]

The heat transfers quickly but then again, I only had about 1/3 of a keg left. Only used 6 super chili peppers split in half.