Ancho Chili Porter - Please Critique

[ChefMichael01]

I'm going to be brewing an PM Ancho Chili Porter this weekend and wanted to get some feedback on the recipe overall (not just the chili part). I am planning to add 5 or so ancho chilis (which are dried poblano) to the wort for the last 5 mins of the boil and strain before pouring into the fermenter. I took the original porter recipe from AHS and am planning on adding 1lb of Light DME for additional alcohol (sidebar - generally speaking, if you want to increase the alcohol level without affecting flavor and don't have additional of the primary grain, can you just add some light DME?).

Also planning on using a 1500mL starter.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.
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Ancho Chili Porter
Robust Porter

Type: Partial Mash
Date: 1/9/2009
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Michael Schott
Boil Size: 2.43 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (3 Gallon)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 11.76 %
4.00 lb Dark Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 47.06 %
2.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 29.41 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.88 %
1.00 oz Challenger [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 14.3 IBU
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
5.00 items Ancho Chili Pepper (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.26 %
Bitterness: 24.4 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 24.2 SRM Color: Color

Mash Profile

My Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash Add 8.00 qt of water at 155.0 F
0 min Sparge Add 3.00 qt of water at 165.0 F

 

[ohararp]

Chef, I just had some ancho/cayenne chocolate ice cream the other day and really want to make a beer like this. I am just curious how things turned out?

 

[O'Haggerty]

I've heard the best results extracting flavor from peppers includes roasting, freezing, and suspending them in the secondary for 2-7 days. Boiling them will extract a maximum amount of capsaicin (flavorless heat component) without adding a lot to the flavor, while "dry peppering" will add flavor/heat more gently.

Take it for what its worth it's my opinion of the style, but unless you want tons of heat you might want to try a batch using secondary infusion first.

edit: oh and trim all the veins / seeds out of the peppers as well.... the roasted "meat" of the pepper is what you want in your beer... the veins and seeds (white internal crap) is where all the heat lives.

 

[kjjohns5]

The best way to get a good pepper flavor with an unground pepper (whole and/or dried), is with a cold extraction. Make the beer, ferment it out, and let it sit in secondary for a few days before crashing it. Add the peppers to the secondary.

You'll want to cut the stems off and break it apart. Turn the pepper inside out and place it into a muslin bag, seeds included. Let it sit for about 7 days and you'll have an awesome pepper aroma and taste.

 

[O'Haggerty]

The best way to get a good pepper flavor with an unground pepper (whole and/or dried), is with a cold extraction. Make the beer, ferment it out, and let it sit in secondary for a few days before crashing it. Add the peppers to the secondary.

You'll want to cut the stems off and break it apart. Turn the pepper inside out and place it into a muslin bag, seeds included. Let it sit for about 7 days and you'll have an awesome pepper aroma and taste.

Awesome taste and your throat will ignite before you finish the first pint. Got one in bottle that I made sans seeds/veins and it is still plenty warm. This also depends on what type of pepper you're using but error on the light side.

 

[ohararp]

Fellas, thanks for all the pointers. I played around with beersmith yesterday and think I have everything dialed in now.

 

[D_Ranged_Eskimo]

How did this turn out. I'm looking at creating a chocolate porter with spice, but I'm looking for a little heat at the end as opposed to actual chile flavors.

 

[kyleobie]

I'm curious too. I just brewed a chipotle brown ale using the "dry peppering" technique mentioned earlier. Too much smoke (for now), not enough heat.

 

[ohararp]

I simply say that the final recipe that I did of this turned out amazing. I used 2 ozs of ancho chiles. I used only the fleshy parts of the peppers. I seperated out the seeds and used about a teaspoon of the remaining seeds, these are the hot part. The final beer has the smoky flavor of the chiles but these is very balanced by the 4 oz of cocoa nibs and chocolate malt that I used. You catch the "hot" pepper on your first sip or 2 and then it quickly passes and you don't really notice the pepper much for the remainder of the beer. I personally would not want a "hot" beer. I went for an ancho chile flavored dark chocloate "bar" experience. These is really a post meal beer and is best served with a piece of dark chocolate. Couple these 2 together and the beer is amazing. This is probably the best beer I have made (about 15 batches thus far).

PS I added the chiles in secondary and "dry hopped" them for 10 days with the cocoa nibs. I just dumped them all right in, no bags, etc.

 

[underbelly]

ohararp- did you deal with sterilizing the chocolate nibs at all or did they just go in the secondary?

 

[ohararp]

ohararp- did you deal with sterilizing the chocolate nibs at all or did they just go in the secondary?

I went right into secondary. Mine came in a vacuum bag. I sanitized it like I would with a yeast packet and pored them right in.

 

[jasonzimmer]

I also brewed an ancho chili chocolate porter, and the ancho chili came out throat spice and wonderful, about 2 weeks after bottling. At about the four week mark, the ancho chili was almost undetectable, and at the six week mark, pretty much gone. Am I doing something wrong? Is this expected behavior?

 

[tadkays]

How should I add about 1oz ancho chiles to my stout in secondary fermenter? chop and muslin bag? any need to soak in vodka?