Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Habanero IPA

[treacheroustexan]

So I majorly screwed up on this one. Everything was great up to dry hopping. Tasted amazing.

Now my screw up was i read g as oz.. or my brain broke... anyways I ended up adding in 17.3 OZ to my beer. Just realized this after bottling.

Am I going to die.

Please report back to let us know if you did.

 

[invalid1]

Reporting back....
Not dead.

Habenero overpowers almost all of the hop aroma. Smells like someone sliced up a habenero and shoved it in my nose.

Flavor wise it starts with a hint of hops sneaking through, and a very large dose of the habenero vegetable flavor.

This is where the burning starts. When you swallow it is like a punch to the throat where the sting hangs around. Then your mouth starts to burn, along with your lips where the beer touched.
If you swallow fast it has a delayed hit. Goes down smooth, but then it rears it's head everywhere at once.

It's not so hot or over powering that it's un-drinkable, I have eat food hotter. I think it would pair very well with burgers or brats, or a cheese plate.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Reporting back....
Not dead.

Habenero overpowers almost all of the hop aroma. Smells like someone sliced up a habenero and shoved it in my nose.

Flavor wise it starts with a hint of hops sneaking through, and a very large dose of the habenero vegetable flavor.

This is where the burning starts. When you swallow it is like a punch to the throat where the sting hangs around. Then your mouth starts to burn, along with your lips where the beer touched.
If you swallow fast it has a delayed hit. Goes down smooth, but then it rears it's head everywhere at once.

It's not so hot or over powering that it's un-drinkable, I have eat food hotter. I think it would pair very well with burgers or brats, or a cheese plate.

Good to hear!

 

[ssgumby]

So I made this one and have mixed results.

First, I started with 2 habs in the boil at 15 minutes.

Next, I added 4 habs to secondary fermentation.

I soaked 4 habs in vodka during secondary then poured the tincture into the bottling bucket.

My goal was a very hot IPA. I love the Habanero Sculpin where you feel the burn in the back of the throat.

What I got was a slight burn, not near the sculpin but I also got a pepper taste which I dont like. Almost a peppery veggie taste.

Let me say my friends all love it, say it is the best home brew they ever tasted.

Just wish I could get more heat, less veggie.

Also, has great head retention and lacing!

 

[Culln5]

So I have an awesome Beechwood Smoked Brown Porter base (50% smoked beechwood grains) that I typically add a vanilla/whiskey concoction to for the holidays..... This thread got me thinking I could take the base and add habaneros to it for the summertime!..... Thoughts? Will the smoke and habaneros pair well? Can I substitute fresh habaneros with ground habanero? Conversion to ground?

 

[bob1852]

I'd use chipotles (dried, smoked, jalapenos).

The smokiness/fruitiness of the chipotle will go better with a smoked porter than just the heat from habanero, in my opinion...

 

[armenianbrewer]

I'm looking to brew this beer this weekend, however, has there been any experiences in keeping the recipe exactly as is in the original post but using a different yeast, maybe something like Wyeast 3711? Thoughts? Recommendations?

 

[Culln5]

So I have an awesome Beechwood Smoked Brown Porter base (50% smoked beechwood grains) that I typically add a vanilla/whiskey concoction to for the holidays..... This thread got me thinking I could take the base and add habaneros to it for the summertime!..... Thoughts? Will the smoke and habaneros pair well? Can I substitute fresh habaneros with ground habanero? Conversion to ground?

Well I wound up brewing a test batch and coming out of the primary it smells and tastes awesome! It is 50% Beechwood smoked malt porter that I followed the OP's method to add the habaneros to the primary (3g/Gal). I get all the smokiness and a moderate pepper burn. I'm sure that by the time it's in the keg the burn will become mild and it will be exactly where I wanted it.

 

[Whiskeymovie]

EDIT: I've made this beer many times now, and it's won many awards, including Gold Medals in both the First and Final Rounds at the 2014 National Homebrewers Competition; some minor changes to the original recipe are incorporated below....

14lbs 2-row (adjust as needed for your efficiency to hit the OG)
1.25lb crystal 20L
1lb carapils
0.5lb caravienne

Mash at 155*F for 60 minutes

1.5oz Amarillo mash hop
0.5oz Warrior @60
0.25oz Magnum @60
0.25oz Columbus @60
0.25oz Northern Brewer @60
0.25oz Crystal @30
0.25oz Centennial @30
0.25oz Simcoe @30
1.5oz Amarillo @0

2oz Simcoe (dry - 5-7 days)
4oz Amarillo (dry - 5-7 days)

WLP001 with a ~1500mL starter

Ferment for 10-14 days @ 64*F
Dry hop for 5-7 days
Dry "pepper" with ~3.0 grams* per gallon of deveined and deseeded habanero peppers for 5 days (you can dry pepper and dry hop at the same time if you want, but if you use hop bags, don't include the peppers in those; they get caught up in hop sludge and won't release as much of their heat/flavor/aroma)

This is based off the various Ballast Point Sculpin IPA clones that are out there. It's won medals at several local and national competitions.

Tasting notes:
A great beer with IPA highlights and guest star of habanero!!!
Very good pepper beer. Perfect balance of IPA and spicy habanero




* notes on peppers: because the heat in peppers is so variable, start with ~3.0g per gallon. After ~5 days taste it. If you need more heat add more habaneros or some serranos (these add a good neutral heat with a slight touch of grassiness that works well with the hops) and sample again after a couple of days. The heat will mellow over time, so you want to bottle/keg when it's slightly hotter than you want the finished product to be.

I saw this recipe in Zymurgy and the one from the magazine was slightly different. It also, when I plugged the recipe into Beersmith, it calculated it at over 150 IBU's. That seemed like a lot, so I amended it to about 80 IBUs. Just curious as to what your IBUs have come out around. Any insight would be most appreciated. Thank you and cheers.