Brewing with peppers

[Grinnan5150]

I am contemplating brewing a saison with habanero peppers. Has anyone tries this? If so, how many would you recommend? I like heat but am not sure whether or not to include the seeds or not. I want a decent amount of heat but don't want to over do it. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[jgerard]

I did a 2 gallon mr beer batch once with some serrano peppers to use up an old can of hme I had laying around.

 

[Tamarlane]

I just posted this reply to a similar thread, I have not tried peppers in a saison, but in an amber ale I have had great success.

I add the peppers to the boil, others add them to the secondary/bottle. I prefer whole peppers with seeds and all but I have a high tolerance for heat

I have not used habaneros but I have used scotch bonnets which are closely related, I add them whole to the boil with 15 minutes left, and transfer to the primary. 4-5 will give you noticeable flavor/heat, double that would probably make it undrinkable for folks with low tolerance for heat.

 

[tally350z]

We made a jalapeno one about two years ago and what we did was when we put it in primary we put about 6 peppers that were sliced(seeds and all) and half were roasted(if I remember correctly).. It had a great spice to it and it almost burned on the way down but then when you were finished it kinda mellowed out. If I was you I would go with about 3 peppers and roast them to give some nice flavor..

 

[Grinnan5150]

Thanks for all your input!

 

[ETCS]

Stone Brewing Co in San Diego, did their 11-11-11 Vertical Epic with peppers and cinnamon sticks. Here is the write up of how they added the peppers to get the flavor out of the peppers and not all of the heat...I've had it by the way and it's a good beer, good chili taste, not a lot of heat...of course if you are going for the heat...never mind the following text:

"The chilies and cinnamon stick we put in a mesh bag and hung in the whirlpool. The addition rate is fairly low. To paraphrase our lab tech Rick Blankemeier, we didn’t want to brew a chili beer, we wanted to brew a great beer with chilies. The low addition rate allows all the other ingredients to blend in. You can taste the chilies, but this is far from a one-dimensional beer. Be sure to bust up the cinnamon stick into small pieces to maximize flavor extraction."

 

[jgerard]

When I did it I brewed the beer as I usually would, but on bottling day I boiled some sliced up peppers in some water to make a cup and a half or so of very strong pepper tea afte strained.

I took a light commercial beer on bottling day and poured it in a glass with a spoonful of the tea. Took a few sips and added some more because I wanted more heat and ended up putting 2 spoonfuls in each bottle.

It turned out great! I even put a slice of the boiled pepper in a few of the bottles and those got so hot! Be sure not to let those ones sit too long if you do that.

Let us know what you end up doing!

 

[DanaDana]

I'm sorry but so far, I haven't had any beers with hot peppers that I enjoy, with the exception of a home brew competition where I tasted a Mexican Chocolate, Cinnamon, Ancho Chile, which was great! Otherwise the peppers always overpower and don't refresh for me at all.

 

[bighorn_brew]

Eske's brew pub does a great pale ale made exclusively with Hatch green chiles, I believe those are anaheim peppers, awesome pepper flavor with a hint of heat. Some batches were hotter than others due to variation of heat from batch to batch...If you want lots of pepper flavor go with anaheims, with a few hotter variaties included...
Here is a review from BA, perhaps you can glean some info off the reviews to formulate your recipe.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3791/12881

 

[cwi]

Most of the capsaicin (heat), and bitterness, is in the veins of the chili. The veins are the white supporting structures inside the pepper. Use just the flesh for more flavor and less heat. Considering a whole habanero is ~50x hotter than a whole jalapeno, you would still need to be careful with the amount used. The habanero is my favorite pepper. I haven't used chili in a beer, but have in ginger soda. The bright citrusy taste it adds over other chilis is nice, but easily overpowered by too much heat.

While I haven't researched what extraction method works best for beer, with general cooking my experience has been that more cooking just removes more flavor, but leaves the heat. If extrapolating that to beer works, adding post boil would result in more flavor and less heat from the same amount of chili. Most flavors and especially aromas also seem to be reduced during ferm, so I wouldn't think chili (flavor at least) would be any different.

I assume the alcohol in the finished beer will extract the capsaicin, as well as some flavor. Some mild heating as in a low temp tea, or even steeping in vodka, should also work if you choose a post-ferm/secondary/bottling/kegging addition. It is much easier to adjust the amount of flavor/heat if the addition is done at kegging and starting with small amounts. Think of it like fresh/dry hopping in the keg, only with chilis.

Careful playing around with those things. I don't drink while working with them because drinking leads to peeing, and peeing leads to transfer of capsaicin to places where I can promise you, you do not want it. I now use food handling gloves when playing with peppers.

 

[mcarb]

I added about four habaneros to a five gallon batch of pale ale. I added two whole and two with no veins or seeds. Sliced them in half and added to secondary after a good soak in vodka. The vodka will leach a lot of heat out so you can add it or not depending on your preference.

 

[Grinnan5150]

I added about four habaneros to a five gallon batch of pale ale. I added two whole and two with no veins or seeds. Sliced them in half and added to secondary after a good soak in vodka. The vodka will leach a lot of heat out so you can add it or not depending on your preference.

What was the amount of heat you got from it? Was it just the flavor or did it have a decent kick to it?

 

[jgerard]

What I like about making the tea and adding it is that you can get a pretty good prediction of the final heat you will end up with. Mine was a mr beer pale ale so I just tested the pepper tea in some budlight because it probably has simmilar flavor and bitterness to the one I was making.

 

[dawgmatic]

Capsaicin breaks down with heat. Adding them to the boil will extract the flavors and oils quicker, but it will also break down the capsaicin fairly quickly.
I like to just add the flesh to the secondary, but I personally like the heat

 

[cwi]

Capsaicin breaks down with heat.

What is your source for that? The boiling point for capsaicin is listed at ~200C, but there could be some other process at play. Like I mentioned before, in my experience cooking with it, no amount of simmering will reduce the chili heat. I have had fresh salsas that tended to decrease in heat over time, but I figured that was some chemical reaction from all the acids.

 

[jgerard]

I didnt lose heat from boiling them because I only boiled for a couple minutes which pulled spice and flavor into the water I added.

 

[dawgmatic]

What is your source for that? The boiling point for capsaicin is listed at ~200C, but there could be some other process at play. Like I mentioned before, in my experience cooking with it, no amount of simmering will reduce the chili heat. I have had fresh salsas that tend to decrease in heat over time, but I figured that was some chemical reaction from all the acids.

You are very much right, I was speaking from personal experience from brewing with peppers which has lead me to believe something false. I guess it made since to me cause when I make chipotles it seems like the heat dies down somewhat.

Apparently capsaicin is pretty stable. There are references on the interwebs to the breakdown of capsaicin in the presence of certain enzymes and acids. Some of which could be present in wort as a byproduct of the grains.

Perhaps the cooling of my chilis has more to do with the acidity of the smoke, or maybe from the peppers caramelizing. either way I'm no chemist so I should probably just shut up.

 

[salmonslayer]

I do a habenero apricot wheat in the summer that's great. I devane and seed my peppers the cut into thin strips and soak in vodka for a few weeks. Then just add befor bottling or kegging.

 

[Chris7687]

Hey guys, bringing this back to light.
- Salmonslayer - How many habenero's do you use? Also, do you add the vodka to your bottling bucket/keg or do you add the soaked strips?