Jalapeño Beer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pilkinga

Active Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
40
Reaction score
1
A friend from work mentioned having some jalapeno beer before. Has anyone else ever heard of this or seen a recipe. If you have seen a recipe I wouldn't mind link/recipe as I might try it. Seems like you could soak peppers in fermenter for a little spicy brew.
 
I didn't read professor's last post in strange recipes until after I created this thread. Can you post a link to the pepper stout/porter?
 
Here you go. This is actally from "The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing" but looks like a great recipe. Don't be turned off by the name. I am willing to bet that anyone that makes this will love it. Maybe I will make it next time I do a porter (I have one fermenting now) and post my findings.

Enjoy.

Tumultuous Porter (Goat Scrotum Ale)
This recipe is for a dark, spicy porter ale. The original version of the recipe is from Charlie Papazian's homebrew book, but after trying a batch Charlie's way I modified the recipe a bit to make a little less bitter and increase the body a bit.

This beer has lots of different ingredients and is a lot of fun to make (and to drink....burp!.....hic!!).




Ingredients
Specialty Malts: Crystal Malt 10L 1 lb
Black Patent Malt 1/4 lb
Roasted Barley 6 oz
Malt Extract: American Classic Dark 6.6 lb
Other Sugars: Domino Brown Sugar 3/4 lb
Dark Molasses 3/4 lb
Corn Sugar 1 lb
Lactose 1/4 lb
Boiling Hops: Hallertauer Leaf a5.6 1 3/4 oz
Finishing Hops: Hallertauer Leaf 1 oz
Aromatic Hops: Hallertauer Leaf 1 1/2 oz
Brewing Licorice: 2 inches
Brewing Licorice: 2 inches
Gypsum 1/2 tsp
Water Crystals 1/2 tsp
Irish Moss 1 tsp
Yeast: Whitbread Ale 14 g

1-10 Szechwan chili peppers (very optional)-I guess this is thrown into the boil. I would reccomend starting with 1 pepper and then tasting to see how hot it is.




Basic Recipe
About two hours before you plan on making the beer, make a yeast starter. In a small pot, bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil. Dissolve in about one tablespoon of malt extract and boil for a minute or two. Put on the lid, remove it from the heat, and let it cool. When room temparature, put in a mason jar and add the yeast. By the time you're done making the beer, your yeast should be very bubbly and active. When recipe calls for you to pitch the yeast, pour the contents of the jar into the fermenter. This gives the yeast a head start, which reduces the probability of any undesireable organisms contaminating your beer.

Crush the crystal malt, roasted barley, and black patent malt Crush the licorice.

Add Crystal Malt to 1 gallon of water, bring to 150-degrees, cover, and let stand for one hour. Sparge into boiler; use enough water (150-degrees) for runoff to be clear.

Dissolve malt extract, sugars & molasses into the water in the boiler. Stir & bring to a boil; then add 1/4 of the boiling hops and licorice. Let boil 15 minutes.

Add 1/2 of the boiling hops. Let boil 15 more minutes.

Add the dark malt and roasted barley. Boil 15 more minutes.

Add the last 1/4 of the boiling hops and the Irish Moss. Boil 13 more minutes.

Add the Flavor Hops. Boil for two more minutes.

Cool, Sparge immediately into fermenter, and pitch the yeast when it's about 80-degrees.




Notes
Boil Times Wort: 60 mins
F. Hops: Last 2 Mins
Bitter Units 31.76

Specific Gravity
(Expected) 1.067
Specific Gravity
(Beginning) 1.062
Specific Gravity
(Ending) 1.016
% Alcohol 6.3
Priming 1/2 tsp corn suger per bottle





Rating the Finished Beer
CLARITY
Cloudy: 1, Hazy: 2, Clear: 3, Brilliant: 4 2
HEAD RETENTION
None: 1, Most Desirable: 3 3
AROMA (Malt) / BOUQUET (Hops)
Poor: 1-3, Good: 4-8 7
TASTE (Hop/Malt; Bitter/Sweet Balance)
Poor: 1-4, Good: 5-10 8
AFTERTASTE
Poor: 1-2, Good: 3-5 5
BUBBLES (carbonation felt in mouth)
Poor: 1-2, Good: 3-5 5
BODY (feel; full or light-body as appropriate)
Poor: 1-2, Good: 3-5 4
OVERALL IMPRESSION (drinkability)
Poor: 1-4, Good: 5-10 7
OTHER VARIABLES (list):
0

TOTAL SCORE (of 50 Possible Points): 41
 
I once had jalepno lager from Peckhams in Morningside, Edinburgh.
it was in a big glassbottle of mexican lager (like sol or similars) andreen had a green jalepno in it, so the flavour leached out in the bottle rather than being brewed. it was about 5% ABV and was pretty firey and hot, man I loved it! and it made you feel a bit mental, all that fire y'know!
 
pilkinga said:
A friend from work mentioned having some jalapeno beer before. Has anyone else ever heard of this or seen a recipe. If you have seen a recipe I wouldn't mind link/recipe as I might try it. Seems like you could soak peppers in fermenter for a little spicy brew.

I used to occaisionally drink Chile Beer when I lived in West Texas. It came from a small brewery somewhere in New Mexico. It's been several years since I researched it, but I believe the jalapenos (small enough to fit in the bottle) were quick-boiled just before bottling (over boiling causes the skin to peel off) and every bottle got a pepper. No mention of any other peppers in the brewing process. And the beer WAS a mexican style like Corona or Dos Eqes.
 
Man, I'll take my fiery foods and my beer separately thanks very much ;)

I've had a few incarnations of chile beer. A local pub, Six Rivers Brewery, makes one. They have never been to my liking, even though I love hot food.

The pepper-per-bottle approach sounds fun, though, and it would have style :D

Janx
 
I was just reading about this in the joy of homebrewing the other day. It seems like an interesting idea, and I want to try it out. There are so many thing that I want to try out, but soo soo little time!!! Maybe i need another set up so i can have 2 brewing at once.
 
tipsymonkey said:
I was just reading about this in the joy of homebrewing the other day. It seems like an interesting idea, and I want to try it out. There are so many thing that I want to try out, but soo soo little time!!! Maybe i need another set up so i can have 2 brewing at once.

Definitely a good idea. We always try to have two yeasts going at once. That way you can do something experiemental (like a jalapeno beer) and something more straightforward (and drinkable) ;).
 
I've tried two different commercially brewed Jalapeños beers and found them both disgusting. One was too hot to enjoy, and the other was just bad. Given these results I cannot condone the brewing of a Jalapeno beer. :)

However, I've tried a Thai Chili Porter that was delicious, and Rogue's Mexi-Cali ale is also great. But both of those have the pepper as a minor player, so maybe if you just used a small amount of Jalapeños you'd be ok. I have no idea what that threshold is though.
 
I did several batches of Jalapeno beer a while back. They were excellent, but too hot for my tastes.

In all truthfulness, I never could finish one bottle because of the heat (no matter how cold it was).

What I did was place a small pepper into each bottle. Prior to putting them in though I made several slices down the sides and cut the very tip off the bottom. I did not sterilize them. I just ran them under hot water before my slicing.

I made a couple of batches for some Mexican friends of mine to take to a wedding reception and got more orders. Because homebrew is illegal to sell I just had them pay for the supplies.

My wife and I just picked up some pepper seeds yesterday for the garden this spring. I will be brewing another batch again.

Later.
 
I recently began brewing, and wanted to do something with peppers as well. For my initial batch (1st ever) I had a Munton's Ale (of some sort, notes are at home) Kit. At the recommendation of the LHBS, I simply added cleaned Serrano Chile peppers, slit down the side, at bottling time. One pepper in each bottle. I tried one the other day, and it had a little kick. My only regret is only doing a 6-pack, as it was my initial brew, I used (at the recommendation of the LHBS) the 2# of corn sugar to the kit, instead of malt, and boy, it could use a bit more non-cidery flavor!
 
plantnerd said:
I recently began brewing, and wanted to do something with peppers as well. For my initial batch (1st ever) I had a Munton's Ale (of some sort, notes are at home) Kit. At the recommendation of the LHBS, I simply added cleaned Serrano Chile peppers, slit down the side, at bottling time. One pepper in each bottle. I tried one the other day, and it had a little kick. My only regret is only doing a 6-pack, as it was my initial brew, I used (at the recommendation of the LHBS) the 2# of corn sugar to the kit, instead of malt, and boy, it could use a bit more non-cidery flavor!


One thing you could do is let the pepper beer sit a while. I've had pepper beer sit almost 1 year. In the meanwhile you'll probably make more batches. If one happens to be more on the bitter side due to over hopping then you could mix the two (pouring half a bottle in each glass would give you 2 beers instead of one and the heat/flavor will be in both).

I don't know why you chose to use so much sugar, but cut it out. Sugar is going to give the cidery taste to your beer.

Use rice solids if you want to add alcohol but no color. American beer is brewed this way, a lot of it.

Happy brewing! :D
 
homebrewer_99 said:
One thing you could do is let the pepper beer sit a while. I've had pepper beer sit almost 1 year. In the meanwhile you'll probably make more batches. If one happens to be more on the bitter side due to over hopping then you could mix the two (pouring half a bottle in each glass would give you 2 beers instead of one and the heat/flavor will be in both).

I don't know why you chose to use so much sugar, but cut it out. Sugar is going to give the cidery taste to your beer.

Use rice solids if you want to add alcohol but no color. American beer is brewed this way, a lot of it.

Happy brewing! :D

The only reason I used so much corn sugar was based on the advice of the LHBS. And, by the way, it has a VERY cidery taste! From now on, it's only malt extract/specialty grains (until I start with AG) I may have not been too clear, as the pepper beer is really the only drinkable beer I have from the 1st batch, but I will keep it in mind if/when I have something that gets too hoppy or something.

Thanks!
 
plantnerd said:
The only reason I used so much corn sugar was based on the advice of the LHBS. And, by the way, it has a VERY cidery taste! From now on, it's only malt extract/specialty grains (until I start with AG) I may have not been too clear, as the pepper beer is really the only drinkable beer I have from the 1st batch, but I will keep it in mind if/when I have something that gets too hoppy or something.

Thanks!


OK. Here's one way to save your beer - all of it:

Boil 3-4 C of water and about a 1/2 oz of hops (pellets) for 10 minutes until all the hops are dissolved.

Open one of your beers and pour ALL OF IT into a glass. Get an eye dropper. If you don't have an eye dropper you could always put the end of a straw into the hop tea and place your finger over the end to create a vacuum. You know, you must have done this with a soda from Micky D's plenty of times.

Be sure to strain as much of the hops out of the tea as possible. If you can't then don't worry it'll just drop to the bottoom of the bottle and you'll have to do some "one-pours" to keep your beer clear. "One pours" are when you pour your beer slowly into a glass without stopping and stop when the sediment heads towards the neck.

Start with about 1/2 inch of tea in the straw and add it to the glass. Give it a slight stir and sample it. If it needs more hops to mellow out the cidery flavors then add more, but make sure you remember how much you added to the full glass. When you find a good flavor (not so sweet/not so bitter) balance then you can add the same amount to each bottle and re-cap. Make sure you mark the straw so that you can give each bottle the same amount of tea. The problem here is overhopping. You don't want to ruin your beer in the other direction.

You may have to remove the same amount of beer from each bottle that you will put in to compensate for the space.

If they have already carbonated then chances are there is enough sugar left in to re-carbonate itself. So I wouldn't sweat that.

Let them sit for a couple of days and give one a try. Be sure to get back to us and let us know how they turned out.

Happy brewing!
 
homebrewer_99 said:
OK. Here's one way to save your beer - all of it:

Boil 3-4 C of water and about a 1/2 oz of hops (pellets) for 10 minutes until all the hops are dissolved.

Open one of your beers and pour ALL OF IT into a glass. Get an eye dropper. If you don't have an eye dropper you could always put the end of a straw into the hop tea and place your finger over the end to create a vacuum. You know, you must have done this with a soda from Micky D's plenty of times.

Be sure to strain as much of the hops out of the tea as possible. If you can't then don't worry it'll just drop to the bottoom of the bottle and you'll have to do some "one-pours" to keep your beer clear. "One pours" are when you pour your beer slowly into a glass without stopping and stop when the sediment heads towards the neck.

Start with about 1/2 inch of tea in the straw and add it to the glass. Give it a slight stir and sample it. If it needs more hops to mellow out the cidery flavors then add more, but make sure you remember how much you added to the full glass. When you find a good flavor (not so sweet/not so bitter) balance then you can add the same amount to each bottle and re-cap. Make sure you mark the straw so that you can give each bottle the same amount of tea. The problem here is overhopping. You don't want to ruin your beer in the other direction.

You may have to remove the same amount of beer from each bottle that you will put in to compensate for the space.

If they have already carbonated then chances are there is enough sugar left in to re-carbonate itself. So I wouldn't sweat that.

Let them sit for a couple of days and give one a try. Be sure to get back to us and let us know how they turned out.

Happy brewing!

Thanks!

I had never heard of or thought of using that trick, but it sounds like a good plan. I have never been one to shy away from the hops, but what alpha% would you recommend? The only hops that I have used thus far have been Columbus, Nugget, and Fuggles.
 
You want a nice aromatic hop...the Fuggles would be OK or some Cascade or Amarillo or whatever. You don't need high alphas, just a good flavor/aroma hop if you only boil for 10 minutes.
 
Janx said:
You want a nice aromatic hop...the Fuggles would be OK or some Cascade or Amarillo or whatever. You don't need high alphas, just a good flavor/aroma hop if you only boil for 10 minutes.


It's all personal preference, I agree, but you are going for a flavorful bitterness here.

I wouldn't necessarily use an "expensive" hop either since the overall flavor will be overpowered by the heat/flavor of the pepper.

I'm glad I gave you something to think about as far as saving your brews.

Good luck...and keep us informed as to how it turns out. Someone else will surely be in need of the same info someday. :D
 
I'm new to the forum, and usually just a lurker, but...

A couple weeks ago, my girlfriend and I went to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington state. The local microbrewery, San Juan Brewing Co., runs an, "Ale Diablo". Man, that stuff was great. Cilantro, anaheim, jalapeno, habanero, and serrano peppers were used to flavor the brew, and it was great! Had a start like a good pale, middle with just the right amount of pepper (not heat, really, just the pepper flavor), and a finish with just a bit of a 'bite' to it.

If anyone is in the seattle area, I really recommend stopping by. I was able to talk to one of the brewers, i think his name was Dave, and he was a really, really , nice guy. Total hippie until you start talking about brewing, I think he really knows his stuff.
 
I had the most fantastic habanero-brau at the HBS. The brewer wasn't there to provide the recipe, but if I can get it from them I'll post it.
 
I had some from the Dam Brewery in Dillon, CO one time. Really good brewery most of the time, but that beer was the nastiest bunch of mess I've ever had. Ewww, it gives me shivers just thinking about it.
 
I made a good Jalapeno Pale Ale not too long ago. It came ou tasting real nice, not too hot, just good jalapeno flavor. The trick is to cut the insides out of the peppers, put them in boiling water for about 30 seconds and then put them right into cold water. After you have done that, add them to the boil for 30 minutes in a muslin sack.

I added about 10 peppers to 5 gallons of wort. The beer was a little on the hot side right after bottling, but it mellowed out quickly and after a month it was perfect.
 
To me, jalapeños and especially serranos are mostly just hot and lack good flavor. I would use a chile with more flavor and less heat. Perhaps poblanos or some of the famous Hatch chiles from New Mexico.

I recently had the opportunity to try the chile beer from Rio Grande Brewing (which, I think, is the brewery that BrewPastor used to operate). It was fantastic. The chile flavor was quite dominant, but the heat was subtle. It's certainly not a session beer, but a single pint was very enjoyable.
 
+1 for not a session beer! Last weekend I was fortunate enough to try a jale. beer at the Michigan Brewer's Guild's Winter Beer Festival. I have recommended it to everyone as the most unique thing I tried. I really liked it, although SWMBO did not. It would be great to take to a party where a few could try it. The one I had was called Ring of Fire from Arcadia Brewery in Battle Creek. The pepper was neck and neck with the malt, so much that I didn't percieve hoppiness(although this was well into my drinking day:cross: )
 
I just bottled my first real Green Beer. (Healthy Beer?)

Wheat Beer w/ 1 lb of roasted de-seeded hatch chilies. + 32 oz of the organic green juice to get the spirulina, chlorella, and wheat grasses and other good things.

This tasted FUNKY at bottling. I will now wait...

BTW. It was not green!
 
I brewed an awesome pepper beer last year.

I recommend light bittering with bullion hops and no aroma in a pale ale or lager.

I roasted my peppers and tossed them into the secondary, effectively "dry habing".

The heat is so soluble in the beer it isn't funny.

6 habs in 5 gallons resulted in fire water.

It tastes great but most people can't take the heat.

Adjust accordingly!
 
My buddy Eric and I just made (his second) batch of Jalapeno beer.

Here is the recipe we used (vaguely from memory)

4lb Coopers Extra Light
1/2lb Crystal 60
2lb 6-Row
1lb 2-Row
1.5lb Honey

2oz Amarillo @ 60min

Single infusion mash at 148 for 60 minutes. Batch sparged at 170 to get about 3.5 gallons and did our boil.

In secondary he added about 5oz of Jalapenos to some maple syrup and simmered then racked on top of it.

Ended up owning our efficiency and getting around 6.5% out of it. A bit of added spice and great hop bite to it also.
 
You used habaneros?


I brewed an awesome pepper beer last year.

I recommend light bittering with bullion hops and no aroma in a pale ale or lager.

I roasted my peppers and tossed them into the secondary, effectively "dry habing".

The heat is so soluble in the beer it isn't funny.

6 habs in 5 gallons resulted in fire water.

It tastes great but most people can't take the heat.

Adjust accordingly!
 
I have had good luck with making jalapeno beers!

Both times I used a recipe for a hoppy pale ale with a fruity aroma. Columbus and cascade as an aroma/dry hop seemed to complement the pepperfied beer very well.

The first time around I chopped a few jalapenos finely then put them in enough vodka to cover them. I waited about 5 days, then strained off the green juice and put it in the secondary and starting pouring pints not long after. It was good with a strong green pepper kinda flavor and a little heat.

The second time we quartered about 5 jalapenos, put them on a piece of foil and put them in the barbeque grill for about 4 minutes with it pretty hot inside. This seemed to make the peppers soften up and start sweating out their peppery goodness. Then we threw them straight in a strainer bag and into the secondary (serving keg). It's been about 24 hours and the beer tastes like magic!

We also did the same with two habaneros in a separate 5 gallon batch and it is hot and delicious! Now I just gotta drink my way through 10 gallons of spicy beer....
 
Jalapeno Cream Ale

Brew Type: All Grain Date: 12/19/2004
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beers
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 7.39 gal Boil Time: 60 min


Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2 SRM) Grain 73.7 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1 SRM) Grain 10.5 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (4 SRM) Grain 10.5 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2 SRM) Grain 5.3 %
1.00 oz Cluster [7.0%] (60 min) Hops 24.6 IBU
1.00 oz Liberty Leaf [4.3%] (25 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
1.00 oz Liberty Leaf [4.3%] (15 min) Hops 7.5 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
7.00 items Jalapeno pepper (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale


Notes
Slit, rinse & roast Jalapenos 20-30 minutes at 350F, slice and soak in Vodka overnight. Add 2 Jalapenos at 15 mins. Add two more at high kraeusen, Add 2-3 more roasted peppers to the secondary depending on how much pepper bite you prefer. Peppers vary from crop to crop so use 5-7 depending....

2nd place 2003 FOAM Cup............................ Tulsa Ok
3rd place 2004 Hoppy Halloween Challenge.. Fargo ND
2nd place 2006 FOAM Cup............................ Tulsa Ok
1st place 2006 Hoppy Halloween Challenge..Fargo ND
3rd place 2007 River City Roundup ..............Omaha NE
 
I'm steeping my jalapenos in tequila. They are in the fridge. I'm going to bottle in a couple of days. It's a Mexican Cervesa(Corona Clone). I'm going to add the peppers only to a couple bottles. Just to test it out. I don't want to ruin the whole batch.
 
I just had Bent River Brewing's Jalapeno Pepper Ale - it was incredible. Anyone have a clone or does it compare to the OP's recipe?
 
I just tasted my Mexican Cervesa with jalapeno and lime juice. I have to say, it's one of the best beers I've ever tasted. I put the jalapeno right in the bottle. It was funny, when I opened the bottle it damn near fizzed right out the top. It was a fun beer to make and even better to drink.
 
I made a jalapeno beer it was my third batch ever and I used 50 whole split peppers. It was great in the morning with steak and eggs and toast, but you could only drink one at a time with food, because it burnt the back of your throut. And it ruined my 8gal plastic fermenter. The AG bloned I just finished still has pepper taste. I need a new fermenter.
 
I made a blonde ale. i put 4 jalapenos sliced in quarters deseeded and 2 habeneros deseeded in the secondary for 7 days and bottled. First few months in the bottle had a fresh jalapeno flavor and a good amount of heat when you swallowed. now it has a real subtle pepper flavor and still has the subtle heat when you swallow. turned out perfect. goes great with tex-mex food.
 
Basically a 5.5G all grain summer cream ale recipe I use targeting 16.5 IBU. Garden fresh jalapeños seem fun to try as an addition. Plan is to rough chop 5 peppers, seeds, ribs and all and add to my hop bag with 5 min to go in boil. Let steep 5 additional min after flameout. Remove and toss.

Peppers are not burning hot.....just a good average jalapeño from the garden. With no experience to base my usage, does this sound about right>>> 1 pepper per gal?
 
Back
Top