kit Guinness clone to chipotle stout questions?

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brewingsam

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picked up a kit that claimed it was the closet i'd get to Guinness, though without the nitrogen to flatten it out i'm really not sure how strong that claim can be, so i decided to go a different rout, and make it a chipotle stout

i heard that if i was going to add the peppers it was best to add them in the secondary

the brew was simple enough, steep what appear to be coffee malt and some kind of lighter malt, came with a tub of extract, we hit the gravity right on the nose, used the boiling and flavor hops at the right times, and she's bubbling away in the brew bucket just like she should be
the real question is, how much chipotle to add

i read one place i should break it into 3 smaller batches and do a single pepper in the first, 2 peppers in the 2nd, and 3 in the 3rd, makes sense, but it really isn't my style to break down my batches like that

my buddy read somewhere that i should only add a few tea spoons of chipotle powder, which after what i just wrote seems like underkill

i figured doing 1 pepper per gallon was a good start, it it was too little my next batch would go 2 peppers per gallon and keep moving on in that sort of progression.

anyone brewed this kind of beer before? tips, suggestions?
 
Question.... Are you looking for the chipotle flavor or are you looking for the spice/heat?

I would suggest adding to your secondary. 1 per gallon sound like that should do the job. If you only want heat ,try cayenne, it wont take as much and you shouldn't alter the flavor of your stout that much and you can add that to your boil.
 
You have to be really careful with those. There is a very fine balance point between a nice, smoky flavor, and creating something that is almost undrinkable. That's the best reason for splitting the batch 3 ways, because you can then blend it to reach the perfect balance.
 
wouldn't mind a bit of both heat and flavor, you know what i mean,

i'm not looking for a scorcher though just enough heat to be let you know that its there
 
I had 10 gallons of dry stout getting ready to go into bottles and my friend made a birthday request. He wanted me to add some chili's to a portion of it for him. I ended up roasting 2 jalapeno's then steeping them in about a cup of water. I added this to my bottling bucket when I had 2 gallons left to bottle, then I stirred it. I tasted the last bit in the bucket after bottling and it was fairly spicy, but certainly not overwhelming. The roast barley aroma was fairly well masked by the peppers. I haven't tasted it with carbonation and aging yet. I would say 1 per gallon is safe in the secondary, just check every couple days to check if it has developed enough spiciness for your taste and bottle it. It may take a day to reach the desired level, it may take 2 weeks or a month... Good luck and let us know your results.
 
I just bottled up a chili IPA, and I actually added 4 opened up ancho chili's to the last 15 of the boil (these are large chili's) and two chipotle peppers for a touch of smoke (that I honestly don't think really came through against the heat of the ancho's and the strength of the hops).....I think it turned out pretty good, and I pretty much nailed the heat level, but there's not that much chili flavor that I can taste at this early stage outside of the moderate heat which goes well with the amarillo and cascade hops. Maybe it will come through more as the beer conditions some. As it is I think it will be a great "cactusville" IPA.

to get a chipotle flavor, you might also consider a bit of chocolate powder and maybe some cinnamon and cloves, just to get that mole-esque flavor.......just a thought.
 
the beer is shaping up nicely, a bit more coffee in it than i would have liked, i may add some heavy chocolate to balance, the pepper is coming through nicely at 1 large pepper per gallon

next time i run this i think i'm going to try for 2 or maybe 3 per gallon, though i hear capsicum doesn't degrade so it may be just a matter of aging
 
OK, I live in AZ and I grew up here, a "desert rat" as they like to call us, however, I have Scottish ancestry and many Irish friends. Having said that, chili stout? WTF, sounds like an experiment in the weird...Don't get me wrong I am not trying to offend anyone, or anger anyone, but I just can't imagine a stout with chili peppers in it! It could be AWESOME, but I don't know if I would EVER try it, unless...maybe someone was willing to send me a bottle :)

Anyhow, I hope it turns out GREAT!, but wach out for the Irsih mafia, or whatever, you might find a potato in your bed or something:D
 
I sampled my chipotle stout a couple days ago. I also went 1 pepper per gallon. It's the perfect degree of spiciness and the roast pepper flavor interacts very well with the roast barley. A spicy stout is a treat to be cherished.
 
thats what i heard bbrim,

giggles, thats the way it sounded to me at first too, but i heard that stone won serveral contests with a chipotle stout, so i gave one a shot, and it turned out very nice,
 
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