Adding Chilies -- How much?

[BarberSurgeon]

First off, greetings everyone -- this is my first post here and this looks like a great community I'll come back to often.

Now to my question:

I'm preparing to brew a two-gallon batch of American pale ale with dried chili pepper added in the secondary with the dry-hopping. I'm trying to figure out roughly what quantity pf peppers to add and for how long. I also want to add a bit of flavor and sanitize the chilies before-hand by soaking them in mezcal (like a sweeter tequila) for a day or two. I have no idea how much heat this will soak out of them, however. I would like the final product to be slightly more aggressive than subtle and have a bit of kick to it.

Like I said, I'll be doing just a two-gallon batch. Beer Smith estimates the OG at 1.062 and the FG at 1.018, with a bitterness rating of 53.8 and an estimated abv of 5.7. This is only my second batch, so I'm not sure if any of that information is useful, but I thought it couldn't hurt to supply.

 

[CPooley4]

I believe Randy Mosher in his Radical Brewing book recommended starting with 1 pepper (chopped/deveined) per 5 gallons and increase from there depending upon how much heat you really want. Recommended adding at end of boil or to a secondary if I remember right. I don't have the book in front of me right now.

Good luck.

cp

 

[Oldsock]

It really depends on the type of chili you are adding, huge range of heat level (and personal heat tolerances). You might want to steep a few chilies in the mezcal for a week or two, then add the spicy liquor to taste rather than the spend chilies. I’ve had good luck with lower heat peppers like ancho in dark beers, but you might want to use something “brighter” for a pale ale.

 

[BarberSurgeon]

Okay, new problem. I can't find dried chilis anywhere in my area (Charleston, WV). How should I go about preparing fresh chilis? I've heard slicing them and removing seeds. Any particular reason this is best? Could I roast them a bit?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found a huge stock of different peppers today!

 

[BarberSurgeon]

Last question (I think):

I've read dozens of threads here about adding chilis, but none have really given much guidance on how much to add during the secondary.

I'm using dried japones chilis (the small red ones you get in Chinese and Thai food). They rate at 10,000-15,000 Scoville units (about as much as serrano). I've made a two-gallon batch of APA and want to add enough to get a decent amount of heat in the profile (not scorching, but noticeably warm). I'm going to use an extract/santization method of soaking them in mezcal for a few days.

I'm hoping someone here who has worked with chilis can give me a recommended amount to add. I've seen recipes where people are adding as many as 8 oz of peppers and others who recommend only dropping in 1 or 2.

 

[MBasile]

Stone told me that they do about 20 grams of chipotle chiles per 10.8gal cask for their peppered smoked porter. To do my 5 gallon batch I reduced the amount linearly to about 10 grams.

They (and I) chopped the chiles and put them in warm water and brought that to a boil to sanitize before putting the chopped pieces in the beer. I can't comment on how mine turned out because the chiles went in yesterday.

 

[BarberSurgeon]

I thought I'd follow up for anyone interested in this in the future.

I used about .5 oz of the chilies (10-15,000 Scovilles) which was about 5 of them in about 1 oz of Mezcal. When I added it to the batch, the mixture was pretty hot. About like the hottest wings you can find in most places. They spent 7 days in the secondary. At bottling, the beer had a nice warm heat at the back of the throat a little bit stronger than a really spicy ginger ale, which is exactly what I was aiming for.