Pepper Beer

[kaptain_karma]

Anyone ever made a beer spiced with peppers? What varieties would you recommend? Also, how should they be prepared, and when should they be added?

I've had the Rogue Chipotle Ale, and my local microbrewery has an intersting chili beer. I love peppers, and would love to try them in a homebrew, but have no idea of where to even start.

 

[c.n.budz]

I've never made one, but I believe most people put the peppers in the secondary. I've made pepper vodka a few times and regular jalapenos worked well, habaneros were way too spicy and made the vodka nearly undrinkable

 

[kaptain_karma]

When you made jalapeno vodka, how much pepper did you use per volume?

 

[Brewtopia]

When brewing a chili beer, I say go with the advice of our resident expert. (I know I plan to.)

Originally posted by Brewpastor

Brewpastor’s Chili Beer Notes

Chile beer is what I won my Great American Beer Festival medals with. In my opinion, when making a chile beer you have to decide if you want heat, flavor or some combination. I tend to go for a blend, with the balance going towards the flavor and aroma. I am not a fan of FIRE beers that just burn and want something that I can enjoy and not remember with regret the next time I'm on the can.

My personal favorite chile is a fresh roasted New Mexico green chile. They have a great roasted flavor and the heat is variable and therefore fairly easy to gauge and manage.

I like a golden beer base, along the lines of a golden ale or European lager. I like it clean with few esters and lightly hopped and only bitter hopped. A little crystal is fine but I want the roast chile flavor and aroma to take center stage and not have to do battle with lots of extra flavors.

It is useful to add some cara-pils and/or wheat because the oils from the chile will really kill the head on these beers. I also avoid boiling the chile and dry hop with them in the secondary.

I dry hop for a couple reasons. First I want the chile in the fermented wort enviroment where the alcohol and the ph can help extract the oils. Second, I want to retain as much aroma as possible and the CO2 of primary fermentation will drive much of this off. Third, I DON'T want my chile fermenting any more then they need to. They do have sugars and I am not after chile wine.

SO, after primary I chill the batch down and dump in my chiles. Frozen chile works well because the freezing ruptures the cells in the fruit and more liquid is exposed. As I said earlier, I like a roasted chile as well. In New Mexico we take our chile very seriously, but elsewhere I would suggest oven roasting your chiles under the broiler until the skin is dark brown to black and splitting. When you put it in the secondary, put every bit in, stem seeds, skin and meat.

Let it soak for a week of so. It is my advice to start on the conservative side. You can always add more chile.

My assumption is a chile beer is a beer first and a chile beer second. It should be clean and have the character of your chile, not the other way around. Balance is key.

Key points:
Crisp, straight forward base
Roasted chiles or peppers
Dry hop the chiles in a secondary
Don't go overboard with the heat!

 

[Jim Karr]

Our own Brewpastor has a recipe for chile beer............................

Beat out in the race to post!

 

[c.n.budz]

When you made jalapeno vodka, how much pepper did you use per volume?

I used 4 or 5 normal sized jalapenos, sliced in half length wise, in a 750ml bottle

 

[Brewpastor]

I like flavor more then heat and so don't use the Jalapenos - too much heat, not enough flavor!

 

[kaptain_karma]

Brewpastor - I really love serrano(sp?) peppers and was thinking of using those for some flavore and some chiles for a touch of heat. Any thoughts?

 

[kaptain_karma]

"In New Mexico we take our chile very seriously, but elsewhere I would suggest oven roasting your chiles under the broiler"

What would be the authentic way to roast a chile?

 

[shafferpilot]

I've had chili beer that just had a single pepper in the bottle. not sure if that's all they did to make it, but stands to reason that it'd work.

 

[Brewpastor]

"In New Mexico we take our chile very seriously, but elsewhere I would suggest oven roasting your chiles under the broiler"

What would be the authentic way to roast a chile?

There are chile roasters that hold a couple bushels of chiles at a time. It is basicall a metal mesh cylinder that rotates while a row of propane burners blasts them. This gives the chiles a good, deep and even roast. When they are done roasting they are put in a plastic bag where they sort of naturally steam.

 

[HBDrinker008]

I had a friend that made a pepper beer with Jalepenos. It turned out well, really spicy at first but then after half the beer the pepper taste wasnt as evident and the beer taste came through. His base was a generic pale ale with cascades and probably had more hop nose than the style caled for but it was good beer or experiment if nothing else

 

[Dextersmom]

I've had chili beer that just had a single pepper in the bottle. not sure if that's all they did to make it, but stands to reason that it'd work.

i believe i've had that before....i forget what it was called. It was quite spicy to drink. i did enjoy it though.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

"In New Mexico we take our chile very seriously, but elsewhere I would suggest oven roasting your chiles under the broiler"

What would be the authentic way to roast a chile?

As mentioned before, there are specific chile roasters that are used at the various places that sell chiles. Those are pretty cool, but probably not an option in most regions.

Personally, I like to roast the green chiles that I grow in my garden on my propane grill (charcoal will impart other non-chile flavors so I would avoid it). I leave the lid up and keep a close eye on the chiles, flipping them periodically to make sure they don't get scorched. I try to roast them to the point where there are some small black/brown spots and areas where the skin is starting to separate from the meat.

After the chiles are roasted, I put them in zip lock bags and throw them in the freezer. Then I thaw them either individually or a full bag at a time. The skin peels right off.

The added benefit of roasting your own chiles is that you get to prolong the wonderful aroma that roasting chiles give off. That is one of the coolest things about fall in NM, in my opinion.

 

[brewhead]

i made a serrano pepper beer. basically a pale ale and serrano peppers in the secondary. nice flavour with just enough heat

 

[Moonpile]

There are chile roasters that hold a couple bushels of chiles at a time. It is basicall a metal mesh cylinder that rotates while a row of propane burners blasts them. This gives the chiles a good, deep and even roast. When they are done roasting they are put in a plastic bag where they sort of naturally steam.

Oh that brings back memories. When I lived in Albuquerque I worked at the Wild Oats on Menual and Juan Tabo and during the season they'd roast chiles this way in the parking lot of the Albertsons across the intersection. I loved it!

That said, I usually just turned on of my gas burner on the stove top and threw 'em on there. Turned 'em a few times until the skin was thoroughly blackened and then put 'em in a jar with the lid on for five minutes. Then you wash the skins right off under cold water. Seed them and then dice or whatever.

 

[razyrsharpe]

Brewpastor - I really love serrano(sp?) peppers and was thinking of using those for some flavore and some chiles for a touch of heat. Any thoughts?

i just made a canadian ale that i used serrano chiles in (ones i grew myself). mine were dried chilies and i used them in the boil instead of the secondary. i only used a dozen chiles for a 5 gallon batch.
i will be bottling this concoction tomorrow morning. it fermented for 10 days and i put it in a secondary/clearing vessel for 14. i will keep you posted on how it turned out.
i am anxious to see how it turned out.

 

[RedVR6]

Jalapeno Ale is one of my favorites to brew...and it's one of the favorites of my friends and SWMBO. Also, probably the best I have ever brewed consistantly. (I've been on hiatus for a almost two years now...amassing new equipement for AG and just being lazy.)

My base brew is a cream ale. I tossed the idea of a pale ale around a little....but found the cream ale to work the best with this type of brew since it is light and easy drinking. I don't really have a set recipe as I wing it for the most part. IIRC...I'll chop up four or five jalapeños and toss them in the boil around 45 minutes (assuming a 60 minute boil) to get what I can out of them. During my primary fermentation I steep eight to ten peppers in a vodka tincture for that week and toss most of the peppers into the secondary with some of the tincture...not a whole lot because the vodka becomes battery acid and I don't want to kill anyone. But it is usually several ounces (if not a little more) and let the secondary sit for approx. two weeks. From there I bottle...during bottling I sometimes set a few bombers aside to lace them with the leftover vodka tincture to boost the spice up a little.

This will probably be my first brew once I am back online in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!

 

[Gedvondur]

A brewing company in Milwaukee makes a pepper beer, but we are talking black pepper, not chillies.


http://www.furthermorebeer.com/ourbeer.html


The beer in question is Knot Stock.


Disclaimer: I am not associated with Furthermore Beer.



Gedvondur

 

[staffVAJoe]

When brewing a chili beer, I say go with the advice of our resident expert. (I know I plan to.)

and BTW you cannot quote a quote RE: beerpastor? from a prev. thread


I want to add some breed hot peppers of some sort to an Oatmeal stout. The reason that I will do it to an oatmeal stout is because I have vowed to brew nothing but this beer for the next 5 batches and I will only change 1 ingredient during my process so I can discern the changes better.

Question 1. What kind?

Question 2. how much?

Question 3. When to add?



I want to have people taste it and say: Another great beer; somethings different... ... WoW Ehh what's that?


Thank-you brewing Gods

 

[snailsongs]

I brewed an IPA with Ancho chili's (large dried, roasted, chili's)....I used 4-5 of them, cut up into larg-ish chunks and I put them in the last 5 minutes of the boil, stems, seeds and all.....what I got was an excellent touch of heat, not too much not too little, that crept up out of the hop flavors and bitterness. I was very happy with the beer, but I believe brewpastor is right that if you want chili flavor then secondary the suckers. I got no real chili flavor at all (or it was buried in the strong flavors of the strong brew), only the heat....just sharing my experience. good luck.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

When brewing a chili beer, I say go with the advice of our resident expert. (I know I plan to.)

I can attest to Brewpastor's chile beer, at least the commercial version. I have three of the Rio Grande Brewing Company chile beers in my fridge that I'm looking forward to drinking. It's definitely a good base beer, with chile flavor and mild heat added to it.

I would also agree 100% that New Mexico grown green chile, fire-roasted, is some of the most flavorful chile out there. That's why I grow it in my yard! :fro:

 

[Brewpastor]

I personally like to secondary the chile. This helps retain more aroma and flavor. I like roasted chile because it:
1- cooks the chile and enhances the flavor
2- it adds a great roasted flavor to the beer
3- it helps break down the chile, getting more of its essence into the beer

As for amount, well that depends on the heat of the chile and the preference of the drinker/brewer. I like chile and I like heat, so my chile beer has a bite to it. I use a medium heat chile, New Mexico grown Sandia Chiles, and I use about 160 grams in a 5 gallon batch. I chop the chile like you would an onion. I generally am working with chile that I have frozen. I toss in the whole chile, skin, seeds, stems and all. I also pour in any juice I get while chopping/processing. You will need to let this sit for a week or two and then rack.

For my base I like something clean, crisp and dry. A CAP, cream ale, golden ale or light lager are all good choices IMO.

 

[yermej]

I've had chili beer that just had a single pepper in the bottle. not sure if that's all they did to make it, but stands to reason that it'd work.

Could have been Cave Creek Chili beer as that's probably the most widely distributed chili beer (it's the only chili beer I've seen in my town). There's a Serrano pepper in each bottle. Used to be from Arizona, but now it's brewed in Tecate, Mexico. From their site, I'd guess the pepper in the bottle is the only pepper used in the process: "Each chili pepper is lovingly dropped, by hand, in every bottle then the bottle is filled with a fine Mexican Lager Beer."

I don't remember enjoying it very much. More spice than beer, though it might depend on how fresh the bottle is.

 

[Brewpastor]

I really don't like Cave Creek. It is mostly just a Mexican Lager with heat - no real chile flavor. The thing about New Mexico/Anaheim Chile is it is an eating chile, in the same way a bell pepper is. A Serrano is more of a spice. When the larger, meatier roasted green chiles are used you get heat, but you also get the chile's flavor. It really straddles the line between vegetable and spice.

 

[MFDave]

So when you're talking about roasting peppers and frozen peppers, are you saying you roast them then freeze them or do you keep them frozen for storage and then roast em before putting them in the secondary?

 

[Brewpastor]

roast and freeze them use

 

[MFDave]

roast and freeze them use

Ah thank you. I just didn't wanna the dummy freezing peppers for no reason before roasting them.

 

[jlmcgrath]

I am also in the beginning stages of research for chili beer brewing and was wondering if I could just add the chilies into the primary after about 2 weeks? At this point I don't have a secondary vessel. Any ideas?

 

[barefootbrewer]

Was wondering if anyone had soaked their chiles in alcohol then added them to the brew? I've got a high hopped rye pale ale and was thinking of putting a very small amount of Serranos in tequila for a couple of days, then putting that into the secondary 2 days before bottling. I'm looking for a faint heat accompaniment to the hops.

Thanks.