Jalapeño Ale

[rodwha]

I'm working on my revised recipe for this. The first one was great but I wanted more flavor, aroma, and spice from the peppers, and to clean up my recipe a bit.

I'm uncertain how roasting vs uncooked jalapeños effect the flavor, aroma, and spice levels, as well as uncertain how adding them to the end of the boil differs from using them as a "dry pepper" addition.

I intend to roast the jalapeños intended for the boil at 350* for 30 mins, slice them thin, and place in a ziplock bag to "steam" for an hour prior to placing them in the freezer. I'm uncertain what I'll do with the others (roast or not), but place these in a container filled with vodka a couple of weeks prior to using after slicing thinly as well.

This is my 5.5 gal partial mash/partial boil recipe:

5.25 lbs 2-row
3 lbs ultralight LME (FO)
3/4 lb flaked barley
1/2 lb C 20
3/4 oz Mt Hood @ 70 mins
1/4 oz Mt Hood @ 21 mins
4 lg jalapeños @ 7 mins
4 lg jalapeños for 7-14 day "dry pepper"
US-05

1.051/1.010
5.4% ABV
18 IBU's
4 SRM

 

[C-Rider]

Don't know how to do it. and at first the idea turned my stomach.....but I had one once and wow it was pretty good. LOL

 

[rorypayne]

After talking to a couple of guys from who did one they said the "dry" pepper method does very little. They smoke the peppers till they blacken and are soft, scrape the black skin away slice thin and into the boil for 15 min. They did 1 pepper/gallon.

I don't think freezing would benefit unless you just don't plan on using them for a while. The boiling will extract the oils from the peppers.

I haven't gotten around to brewing this myself but theirs was amazing.

 

[rodwha]

C-Rider: That's how I felt as well until I tried it. Vegetables in beer sounds horrible!

rorypayne: I freeze that portion because I was told to, but it may very well be because it's done beforehand.

This is one of those beers I'd like to do a side by side by side by side experiment using nothing but roasted peppers in the boil vs as a dry pepper, and then the same with uncooked peppers to really see what does what. I'd also have to prep the peppers all at once so I'd know there wasn't a dud pepper as I get them once in a while.

Have any idea what the backbone style of the beer was they used? I keep reading of people using a dark beer, but it seems it would muddy the overall taste.

 

[rorypayne]

They called it a jalapeño pale ale. It was a light beer and the hop taste was an after thought. I'm guessing somewhere in the range you are looking at 18ibu.

I just tried a habanero beer from triangle brewing and they do both boil and dry. The brewer was not too forthcoming with the amounts or boil times/ schedule. It also is a pale ale.
The taste was not as good as the jalapeño. There was almost no spice. So I'm guessing he seeds and deveins the peppers too.

 

[rodwha]

I'm wondering if a cream ale would be better than this light blonde as a backbone. But then the idea of a beer called "Smoking Hot Blonde" sounds pretty good to me...

 

[rorypayne]

I think a cream ale would be solid. The corn with low hops would really hi lite the pepper.

I think even a Belgian wit could be good.

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

I brewed this a few months ago and it was very good.....I think it needed a tad more tincture....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/jalapeno-cream-ale-131294/

 

[Calder]

Do you add the seeds or not?

 

[rodwha]

I certainly add it all but the stem!

 

[rorypayne]

All but the stem sliced thin is what I will do when I finally brew this.

 

[rodwha]

I've not yet tried this exact recipe. My previous attempt used jalapeños I got from the farmer's market which were medium sized so I used more hoping to get close. I didn't roast the jalapeños use for the "dry pepper" and noticed it wasn't as hot but very flavorful.

And I slice fairly thin in the attempt to expose as much as possible.

 

[jekeane]

I have a jalapeño raspberry wheat that I have won silver and bronze with at a smaller competitions and scored a 45 on in a 1000+ entry competition. Im not a brewing expert but this beer is well received by everyone. I do not put any jalapeño in the boil I have tried two methods both with similar results. I rack the beer into secondary onto the raspberries and peppers. I would assume you could do this in primary as well because you are using no other fruit.

Method 1: I halved 4 larger peppers left the seeds in then used a steamer basket to sanitize them with steam for a few minutes. Once they were cool enough to pick up I tossed them in the carboy.

Method 2: Same amount and sized peppers but I took the seeds out of 1 to reduce the heat a little. Then I put them on foil skin up in the toaster oven and broiled till the skin blackened and blistered. After that I just tossed them right into the carboy.

Both times the pepper aroma was crystal clear, taste was present in the heat and spice and had no vegetal qualities. (one bjcp judge specifically mentioned this) The roasty qualities of the second method were noticeable but you needed to look for them. This is possibly due to the raspberries as well.

One note is all peppers are not created equally. My peppers are homegrown and are a good deal hotter than our local grocer.

 

[rodwha]

5 gal batch?

I'd say halving it (boil/dry pepper) halves the flavor and aroma from what little I've tried.

How does the raspberry come through? And is this more or less an American wheat type recipe?

 

[rorypayne]

When do you plan on brewing this?

 

[rodwha]

Probably mid week next week. I'm still waiting on shipping, and I'll have out of town company over the weekend. I'm certainly looking forward to cracking one open!

 

[bobbrews]

Don't roast them. Roasted jalapenos and fresh jalapenos have very different flavors. Roasted, blackened jalapenos offers reduced heat, increased vegetalness, and a little char flavor. Also, that roasted flavor doesn't mesh well with your light recipe. Fresh jalapenos offer more heat, more brightness, more herbal/grassiness.

The trick will be getting the amount right. You will need more jalapenos than you think is necessary to lend detectable flavor. A little bit of carapils for head retention will go a long way to carry the aroma from the chiles.

I prefer habaneros myself. I just had Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin; one of the only chile beers I actually enjoyed. I am very familiar with this flavor since I use the ingredient a lot. It is more fruity and tropical than it is vegetal. They definitely used fresh habaneros, and it is extremely likely that they were only pitched in the secondary via alcohol tincture for maximum extraction. Throw the chiles + tincture in with some aromatic dryhops.

 

[fuelish]

I prefer habaneros myself.

Same here, but am coming at this from the mead making perspective. A nice strong sweet mead with some habs, some oak, some ginger root, ....excellent sipping beverage on a long cold winter night

 

[rodwha]

I actually like the way my 2 previous jalapeño beers tasted. It didn't coma across as charred.

I've only done it that way as it was how I was instructed the first time. Maybe I ought to try all raw this time.

 

[rorypayne]

I think a side by side would be the best way to determine. Maybe brew up 3 gallons.

1 gallon go only dry
1gallon only boil
1 gallon both

You could even go as far as to do 5 and try the 2 gallons extra with roasted/smoked

1 gallon just boil
1 gallon boil and dry

 

[rodwha]

I'm not sure how I'll go about this, but I've mentioned it to a brewer friend of mine. I don't like doing really small batches just as it's so much work for such little beer, and then hydrometer readings become more of an issue. It becomes a bit too tedious and time consuming when back to back boils need to be done.

And then there's the space in my 7.7 cu ft chamber...

Mostly I'm curious about the difference between the boil and the dry peppering, though I'm now curious about the flavor/aroma difference between roasted and not. I like the way it has been coming out with them roasted though.