Spicy beer!

[dfc]

I'm thinking of brewing a beer with Habaneros. Has anyone ever brewed with chiles? Should I boil the chiles or add them to a secondary?

 

[MetallHed]

I'm doing a chile beer too, here is a general layout for a chile beer, using a cream ale kit as a base and add whatever peppers you want:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/pepper-beer-53957/

Here is a recipe for another:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/madame-butterfly-88793/

Those are both extracts, sorry if you're doing something else; PM or AG. Take note though of how they prepare the peppers; by roasting and freezing. Some add at the boil and some add at secondary, some do both. You'll find notes of how each way turned out. Me? I want mine spicy so I'll probably do both. Don't steal my beer name though!

 

[dfc]

I'm doing a chile beer too, here is a general layout for a chile beer, using a cream ale kit as a base and add whatever peppers you want:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/pepper-beer-53957/

Here is a recipe for another:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/madame-butterfly-88793/

Those are both extracts, sorry if you're doing something else; PM or AG. Take note though of how they prepare the peppers; by roasting and freezing. Some add at the boil and some add at secondary, some do both. You'll find notes of how each way turned out. Me? I want mine spicy so I'll probably do both. Don't steal my beer name though!

No worries on stealing the name. Thanks for the links!

 

[slowjeep]

Never tried using Habaneros in beer, however I made some habanero rum quite a few years ago. Not sure how helpful this is, but alcohol seems to leech the capsium out of the peppers over time. Beer is a little different than 80proof rum, but let me tell you the story.

The stuff I made consisted of a fifth of rum and 8 or 9 peppers. After a month or so the rum took on a yellowish color. My buddy and I tried just a taste, about the size of a bottlecap ful. It was like drinking pepper spray! My mouth and throat swelled up, very painful burning all the way down, and it was very difficult to breathe. Glad we decided to taste it before we did shots, that probably would've killed us. So just be careful.

 

[dfc]

Never tried using Habaneros in beer, however I made some habanero rum quite a few years ago. Not sure how helpful this is, but alcohol seems to leech the capsium out of the peppers over time. Beer is a little different than 80proof rum, but let me tell you the story.

The stuff I made consisted of a fifth of rum and 8 or 9 peppers. After a month or so the rum took on a yellowish color. My buddy and I tried just a taste, about the size of a bottlecap ful. It was like drinking pepper spray! My mouth and throat swelled up, very painful burning all the way down, and it was very difficult to breathe. Glad we decided to taste it before we did shots, that probably would've killed us. So just be careful.

Will do. grand Rapids is a cool city. Founders makes an awesome imperial stout.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I did a Serrano Chili Beer last year, and it turned out great. Here's the recipe.

 

[MetallHed]

HBB that recipe looks good.

20 peppers eh?


hmmm.... me likes me hot stuff.

 

[Six_O_Turbo]

I've made a basic blonde ale and added serranos to a secondary for about a week. about 3 halved or chopped peppers per gallon. The heat will vary depending on whether your peppers have been frozen or are fresh. You will get more heat from frozen because the cell walls of the pepper are broken down more after freezing.

The last batch I made was made with frozen peppers. I sent it to a couple competitions, both of which had judges that thought it was too hot, but still scored from 38 to 41. If I send it off again, I'll either use fresh or back off on the pepper a bit for a gallon or so.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

If you want really detailed information on how many different chili peppers work in beer, go to 5x Pepper Beers. Poster provides mass of each pepper used, the final flavor of each pepper with the beer and finally how well each blend with each other. From this thread I've decided my pepper beer is going to be ancho/panca. Read what he says about habanero and decide from there.

Good luck!

 

[HH60gunner]

I just finished a chipotle/ancho chocolate porter. I cracked one open early to try it and it came out great. However if I had to do it again I would leave mine in the secondary longer to get more kick from the peppers. The only thing my beer got from the peppers was the smokey flavour. So I just called it a smoked porter instead of a chili beer.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

HBB that recipe looks good.

20 peppers eh?


hmmm.... me likes me hot stuff.

Thanks, I thought it was good too. The 20 peppers was just about right, everything was well balanced, and there was just a touch of heat at the end. I was actually surprised that it wasn't hotter, but I didn't mind since the beer as a whole was very good.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Might be helpful.

 

[dfc]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I think I'm going to freeze one habanero and two jalapenos, halve them and use them in secondary for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[MetallHed]

let us know how it turns out!

 

[dfc]

Definitely. Should I soak the chiles in vodka to kill off anything freezing doesn't or is this just something that needs to be done with fruit?

 

[MetallHed]

from what i've read to get the most out of chiles is to halve them, place on a cookie sheet and broil them till they are black and split, then throw them in a ziploc and freeze them for a while. if you aren't roasting them i would sanitize them just to be sure. freezing wont kill everything, look at the other thread with the berries that caused an infection; he just froze, nothing else.

 

[AnonyBrew]

Haven't made a pepper beer yet, but I'd go with roasting them first and if it was me I'd probably try them for awhile in a paint strainer bag in a secondary for a few days first batch and maybe experiment with adding in other places like mash/primary in future batches.

 

[Six_O_Turbo]

I don't do anything beyond washing them. Maybe spritz the outside with starsan, but with the natural properties of the hot peppers and the alcohol in the beer, IMO its not neccesary to fool with them much.

Several batches and no infections from just splitting and tossing em in secondary.

 

[flaminpi3]

I used habaneros in a stout a little while back. I created an extract by soaking them in vodka. I then did some small scale tastings by buying a stout that was similar to what I was shooting for, adding the extract to taste, and then scaling up to the full batch. It turned out really well. So, I would recommend the extract method.

 

[MetallHed]

hey dfc whats the update on this one? did you brew it?