Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Jalapeno Cream Ale

[JoeBronco]

Adding this to Beertools, What category would this fit best into;

Cream Ale?
Spice/Herb/Vedg?
Specialty?

 

[sundowner]

21A spice/herb/vegetable

 

[JoeBronco]

Well I smoked the Jalapenos over a hickory/mesquite blend and added 5 to the boil. I dialed the hops down a bit by using a hop schedule more like this on a 90 minute boil.

0.50 Oz Cluster [7.0%] Mash
0.50 Oz Cluster [7.0%] 45 Min
0.50 Oz Liberty Leaf [3.6%] 20 Min
0.25 Oz Liberty Leaf [3.6%] 15 Min
0.25 Oz Liberty Leaf [3.6%] 10 Min
0.50 Oz Liberty Leaf [3.6%] 5 Min
0.50 Oz Liberty Leaf [3.6%] Flame Out


The IBU is more around 20 and still to style. Since i didn't get the efficiency i would have liked, i added 1/2 lbs of extra light DME to the final 15 minutes of the boil to kick up the ABV a few points and add a small bit of color.

I know that "Mash hopping" supposedly doesn't do anything for your beer, but for some reason it helps me not to have boil overs when i add further hops. I feel that the mash hopping also helps give the beer a bit of hop flavor without the bitterness. I'm going to be adding the vodka and remaining smoked peppers to the beer when the fermentation slows down a bit. Since i have it in the conical i wont need to transfer to secondary and i can just drop the trub and yeasties when they finish up.

So far so good. The peppers in the boil didn't add to much "heat" but they did add a bit of that chipotle flavor.

 

[sundowner]

I haven't visited the brewing forums in a long time. It warms my heart to see you guys enjoying my Jalapeno Cream ale and playing around with the recipe. That's what brewing on the edge is all about...

If you ain't brewing on the edge, you're taking up too much space..

Cheers!

 

[JoeBronco]

How about some photos of the Jalapenos Smoking?

And the Jalapenos ageing in Vodka?

 

[nootay]

i have everything to make this, just need a free fermentor to get started! Howd the smoked jalapeno version come out? Also, when you had the jalapenos to the boil, theres no need to have soaked them in vodka right? Just the ones you add to secondary?

 

[JoeBronco]

I soaked them all in Vodka, and poured the Vodka into secondary with the peppers. But there really is no need to. The Smoked Jalapenos and cream ale is still in the cone. So far they have NO heat but a ton of chipotle flavor. I may add a few more Jalapenos (un-smoked) just to heat it up a bit.

 

[drummerguysteve]

I soaked my smoked peppers in everclear, and it makes KILLER bloody mary's. Smoky, and super spicy. Can't use more than a half-ounce or so. Definitely no doubles!

 

[JoeBronco]

Pour the everclear into the beer to raise it up a few ABV points!

 

[drummerguysteve]

I usually try to keep my abv fairly low so I can drink it all night. In this case, however, I probably can't drink it all night anyway... I might just pour it in.

 

[Zen_Brew]

Hey Sundowner. I got a version of this with some minor tweaks brewing right now. I found the roast took quite a bit of heat off the top of the peppers so no vodka soak. I put (2) sliced in the mash and will put the other (4) in the last 15 mins of the boil. I will taste at the end of fermentation and see if it needs more heat before I drop any in the fermenter. Gonna use WLP080 cream ale yeast. Thanx for the cool recipe.

 

[drummerguysteve]

Tapped a keg of this with 4 smoked habenaros, 4 smoked jalapeños, and 4 smoked cayenne peppers this weekend.

Mine were all put into the secondary, and sat for 1 month. Better than my last batch which just had jalapeños. More smoke flavor too, from cooler longer smoke.

It's super hot, but has amazing flavor! nice sipper on a rainy day (which is 2/3rds of the days here...).

 

[nootay]

making this one now!!

 

[brokenanchor]

I'm definitely going to brew this one up, and jumped ahead of a few in my pipeline. I just need to free up some fermenters. I'll do the original recipe first, but the second time around I'm thinking about using a good deal of rauch malt for a hot smoky beer.

 

[XXguy]

I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of this - using the original recipe. I used 5 roasted Jalepenos at 15 minutes of the boil, and put another 2 in for a "dry hop" secondary after soaking in vodka for 3 days.

My first impression after tasting it 1 month in the bottles was "good, but slightly veggy flavor, and a little low on the heat."

After a 2nd month of conditioning - the veggy flavor was gone, and the heat seemed to stand up a little better on its own, but I would call it noticeable, not pronounced.

Overall, this beer wins lots of props from the BMC crowd. I'll brew up 10 gallons next time. I'd agree with the original recipe's tasting notes of a balanced beer.

 

[nootay]

going to be "dry hopping" the peppers tomorrow. any problem with adding the peppers in the primary? or should i keg and put the jalapeños in a hop back like i do with dry hopping? i put 4 peppers in the mash, right now theres no heat. i have 4 peppers soaking in vodka now. think i should add a few more?

 

[duffman2]

going to be "dry hopping" the peppers tomorrow. any problem with adding the peppers in the primary? or should i keg and put the jalapeños in a hop back like i do with dry hopping? i put 4 peppers in the mash, right now theres no heat. i have 4 peppers soaking in vodka now. think i should add a few more?

Zero problems with putting peppers in primary. I think mine were in primary for about 10 days.

And I would add more peppers. Just remember to sample the wort regularly so you can get a feel for how hot the beer is getting. I took mine out when it started to worry me. The burn tamed down after I took out the peppers and turned out fantastic.

This beer disappeared fast. It's that good

 

[flatfour64]

I brewed up the exact recipe (except I slit my jalapenos in half lengthwise, roasted, and then froze them right after roasting then added direct with no vodka soak) on the 1st page 7 weeks ago to be ready for today, CINCO DE MAYO! AYE! This beer turned out fantastic, perfectly balanced flavors, really a great recipe. When I get home tonight it will be tacos, home-made cilantro lime salsa fresca, and Jalapeno Ale!!!!

Thanks to the OP for posting this awesome recipe!

 

[ohso]

brewed again a couple weeks ago. This is easily my top beer subbed galena for the cluster. Could not tell any difference. my next batch, I'm thinking of doing the vodka soak and see what happens. I always add .25# of c-40 to make the color more like Wasatch.

 

[tuelmen]

You guys talked me into it - I will be brewing this weekend - substituting Vienna with Munich. I like the idea of smoking the Jalapenos, I think it will reduce the chance of wild yeast, and knock down the veggie flavor. As far as heat, Jalapeno heat is always hit and miss.

 

[tuelmen]

Well - everything went great on brew day. I sure hope it tastes better than it looks. I noticed some of the green from the jalapenos leached. Actual efficiency came in at 78.75%.

Sundowner was right - That Vodka is HOT!! I also smoked the jalapenos with hickory. Smoked flavor was in the vodka too.

 

[Mudflap]

ok I'm on the hook for this one. Got some fresh garden 'penos from my father in law over the weekend and was smoking some ribs on Sunday so I threw the peppers in. Saw this thread yesterday and took the OP recipe and scaled it for three gals. I was really excited to brew so I did it last night when I got home from work. I didn't have any vienna so I had to sub with victory and I did add a little c-40 for color. I had to sub the hops as well but kept the same alphas and IBUs. I kept everything with the recipe same as OP and I pitched S-05. I put (2) peppers in the boil (15min) and plan to put (2) more in the carboy once fermentation dies down.

Note to self: small batches are not worth it. I was scared of this recipe so I went with (3) gals, but in hindsight the couple bucks saved and just minutes saved off the total brewday isn't worth it. Wish I woulda done the 5gals. Plus the wort tasted great! If it comes out as expected I may do 10gal next time!

I will report back after my next tasting in a couple weeks!

 

[Mudflap]

So here's my update after bottling this last night. Actually only ended up with 2.25 gal so I need to work something out on my sparge/boil calcs. I fermented for two weeks exactly, then took the (4) remaining smoked penos that I had frozen, sliced them lengthwise and added everything to the fermenter: seeds, pith, and skin. No vodka soak. After 24hrs it was warm and pretty earthy. After 48hrs it was quite warmer but not too hot and the earthiness mellowed, or at least took a back seat to the heat. I bottled at 48hrs cuz I was afraid if I let it go another day it would be too much heat. I think its gonna be about right though after it conditions. Will update in a few more weeks.

 

[BartenderCK]

I'm brand new to brewing, as I type this my first batch is fermenting away in my closet. I was going to do a Jalapeno Saison but this beer sounds amazing. My question is if I want to make a small batch, 1 gallon fermentation jug, can I just divide this recipe by 5?

Thanks!

 

[JoeBronco]

Thats the easy way to do it...

 

[BartenderCK]

I plan to make a 3 gallon batch this weekend.

Here is my plan:

3.50 lbs Pale Malt
0.50 lbs Vienna
0.25 lbs CP
0.50 lbs Corn Flaked Maize
1.00 oz Kent Goldings U.K. (3.8%) AA 60 min **Can't get 1.00 oz Cluster [7.0%]
0.50 oz Libertry (3.9%) A 25 min ** Can't get 1.00 oz Liberty Leaf [4.3%]
0.50 oz Libertry (3.9%) A 15 min ** Can't get 1.00 oz Liberty Leaf [4.3%]

7 roasted, 5 added to boil, 2 added to 3 gallon carboy


Sound like a good conversion?? Thanks!

 

[brewgasm135]

I just racked mine to secondary, and thought I'd share my experience so far.

This was my first all-grain, so... a few things need to be tweaked next time, haha.

To begin with, I followed the recipe pretty much to spec. I did use Nottingham Ale yeast instead, and also used 5 jalapenos for the boil and 5 jalapenos for dry-hopping. My mash temps were very low at 147, and it seemed no matter how much boiling water I added, I couldn't get it the raise. I didn't want to add too much, so I would still have a good amount for the single sparge (I batch-sparged). I ended up with a OG of 1.46 and a FG of 1.004, as expected, with such a low mash temp. Looks like it'll be a pretty dry beer.

I tasted my batch when racking to secondary after two weeks. With just the 5 jalapenos in the boil, its got some heat in the back of the throat. I had already soaked 5 roasted jalapenos for dry-hopping, so I added them anyways. I figured I'll leave them in for 3 days, after hearing the heat mellows a bit during bottle conditioning.

As for the vodka that the jalapenos were soaked in... WOW. I had left them soaking for two days and MAN WAS IT SPICY! Using a couple shots for a bloody mary was pretty much out of the question. I didn't want to waste the vodka though, so I used a bit of it to fill my airlock, and made a big batch of hot sauce with the rest! In a food processor went about 12 tbsp of jalapeno vodka, a can of diced tomato, some garlic, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Then I let it simmer for a while to burn off most of the alcohol and reduce a bit. I cooled it off, added vinegar and bottled it. YUM!

 

[pianoguitar]

So the vodka sterilizes the jalapenos? It seems to be removing their heat, which seems strange if the vodka isn't added to the fermenter.

 

[brewgasm135]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure why the vodka soaking step is in place if we are first roasting the jalapenos, which would sanitize them anyways. You can go right ahead and add that vodka to your fermenter if you'd like! It'll up the alcohol content a bit and for sure increase the heat! I wonder if the dry-hopping adds more of a jalapeno flavor as well though?

 

[Nemleu]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure why the vodka soaking step is in place if we are first roasting the jalapenos, which would sanitize them anyways. You can go right ahead and add that vodka to your fermenter if you'd like! It'll up the alcohol content a bit and for sure increase the heat! I wonder if the dry-hopping adds more of a jalapeno flavor as well though?

I have made this beer twice and plan on making it again very soon. My first batch took 3rd place...... very cool. It had a great balance and was described by a fellow brewer as:

What I liked most about it was the way the beer transitions across the palate. The aroma was smoky, with a "green" aroma like cutting into fresh jalapenos. The smoke flavor continues to come through along with everything else and adds a wonderfully assertive balance to the whole beer. The initial flavor somewhat matches that aroma, then it finishes with a nice balancing act from the cream ale itself. Then the heat comes in the very late finish, making you want to reach for your next sip.

In my opinion soaking the smoked/roasted jalapeno's is extremely important. First, it kills off any hidden bacteria. Second, your tincture can be used in the bottling bucket. The vodka draws out all the heat and jalapeno flavors. The point is, you control the heat by adding as much of the tincture as needed.

Hope that helps....