Rye PA...with chili?

[mclamb6]

I've got a Rye PA in primary right now with the following grain bill.

~70% 2 row
~15% rye malt/flaked rye
~10% wheat malt
~ 5% C60/Victory

Bittered with Warrior, late additions of primarily Amarillo and Centennial with a touch of Simcoe.

Going to dry hop with Cent/Amarillo/Simcoe.

Thinking of adding some chilis into the keg. Something earthy with a touch of residual heat. So....

Good idea? If so, any chili recs? Thinking ancho/serrano.

 

[bluewaterbrewer]

serranos are great. good bite but not too overpowering. also a banana pepper would add a little sweet heat kick. anchos would add the earthiness but there hard to find not dried which i think drying loses alot of your flavor. i see you live in arizona so you may have better luck with finding them fresh. ive used poblanos and serranos in the past and had great results. good luck!

 

[Brewratt]

Ancho chilis are dried Poblanos, not a lot of heat, but if you open a fresh pepper, and score the inner membrane you'll probably get a lot of the nice fruitiness of the chili (that's what I use poblanos for in cooking) including the seeds will give you heat. Ancho chilis have a bit more heat, but the flavors are more abrupt, they do tend to translate well into soups, so using it in the secondary would probably be good.

If you want a defined spice, and a good flavor, you can rarely go wrong with fresh Jalapenos, and since you live in Arizona you can probably find a guy selling them roadside (these will have more flavor, and be fresher than anything in the store) look for chilis that have little lines on them (stretch marks).

Serranos will have quite a bit of spice, and I don't find they have a lot of flavor. Really, if you want a good earthy chili, with a bit of spice... try a Chile Colorado (a dried Anaheim) taste one from the same batch first (they can get really spicy). They have good flavor and should work nicely with the rye.