Curry, jalapeno & ginger sour... how...??

[deeve007]

My local favourite brewer (Strange Brewing in Argentina, if curious, the best brewer here for mine) last year brewed an amazing curry, jalapeno & ginger sour, none of the flavours dominating, with all three just working somehow to create this sour I would never have imagined working.

Would anyone have any idea how they may have added these flavours, at what stage of the process, ratios, from what ingredients / grains / hops ...etc? Would it all come from secondary fermenting (which would certainly make it easier to try), or anything earlier in the process?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Leaving aside the question of why? I'd work on the assumption it's a normalish kettle sour with coldside additions, and add them as vodka tinctures or teas to allow you to add incrementally rather than adding directly and not being able to control the amounts. All those ingredients are really easy to overdo, you may want to play with tinctures in e.g. bland commercial lager just as a sighting shot. Fenugreek is a good starting point for curry.

 

[Miraculix]

I'd use the above approach and just to add, I would not use a curry spice mix but would go with single spices instead and mix my own curry to taste.

Common curry spices are cardamon, fenugreek, cumin, tumeric, cloves, ginger, pepper, chili ........ And the list goes on and on.

I really would make a tincture of each single spice and then try the above approach with a clean lager or sour and try to get it to work by adding drops of each tincture till it fits the picture you got in your head.

 

[deeve007]

The "why" is easy: It was one of the best sours I've ever had, from.onw of the best breweries I've come across.

 

[mashpaddled]

This is one where you need to brew it several times to figure out how to get the blend of spices right in the curry and then the right blend of curry spices + jalapeno + ginger. Personally I would add all of them at whirlpool temperatures which means you are stuck with the additions you add. You could add them after fermentation too but spices often extract better with heat. I would not personally go the tincture route because high proof alcohol can extract some harsh flavors out of a lot of spices--but it would be an easier route.

One question to answer here is what they mean by curry as a descriptor. Curry is used in a general sense. Could be Indian, Thai, Burmese, Indonesian, or any number of Caribbean spice blends. From an Argentinean brewery it is hard to say for sure which it would be.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Personally I would add all of them at whirlpool temperatures which means you are stuck with the additions you add. You could add them after fermentation too but spices often extract better with heat. I would not personally go the tincture route because high proof alcohol can extract some harsh flavors out of a lot of spices--but it would be an easier route.

So, why not make a hot spice tea and add that after fermentation?