Tai Chili Beer

[rodwha]

Talking about my upcoming jalapeño cream ale I thought about other peppers I like and have considered. Suddenly Tai chilis came to mind, which I had not thought of until now. It seems fitting to make some sort of rice ale using them.

I can only do partial boils and partial mashes. I generally prefer to use LME (golden light) as it makes up a bit of my boil off loss and has carapils in it. I buy from MoreBeer and there is no rice LME but they do have rice DME (rice syrup solids?).

So this is what I've come up with:

5 gal partial mash/partial boil:

4 lbs 2-row
3 lbs rice DME
1/2 lb crystal 20
1/2 lb carapils
1/4 lb white wheat berries

3/4 oz Liberty @ 70 mins
1/4 oz Liberty @ 21 mins

US-05

I have no idea how many peppers I'd need but I'd figure on doing what I do with my jalapeños, which is to roast them at 350* for 30 mins and slice them lengthwise in thin strips. Half would go into a ziplock bag and set on the counter to "steam" and then placed in the freezer to go into the boil, and the other half into a container to soak in vodka for the 4 weeks until the "dry pepper" addition time comes up.

Suggestions? Comments? Input of any kind?

 

[bruteforce]

I made a thai chili and lemon grass pale ale earlier this year that turned out pretty nice. I did 6.6 pounds light LME, 1 pound crystal 20 and Nottingham yeast. I soaked 10 chilis (chopped and with the seeds removed) and a stick of lemon grass, sliced into small bits, in vodka for a couple days, then added them to secondary fermentation (sans extra vodka) for 5 days before bottling. Chili came through nicely, though it took about 3 weeks in the bottle for it to mellow out and take on the final tones.

Your recipe sounds pretty good. 2 peppers per gallon gives a lightly spicy beer. 3 peppers would be warm, 4 would likely be hot, but I've only tried 2 and 3 peppers per gallon.

 

[rodwha]

Nice! Thanks for the tips!

I hadn't thought of lemongrass. Hmmm….

 

[rodwha]

Oh, and not roasted?

 

[rodwha]

I can use up to about 6 lbs of grains, and am wondering if using 1/3 rice DME is a bit much. But then I wanted this to be somewhat Asian. Maybe I ought to consider lemongrass too. How much, and does it just go in the boil at the end?

 

[bruteforce]

I didn't roast the peppers, but there's no reason not to. I used a full stalk of lemon grass, and then just soaked it and the chilis in vodka for a few days, and put it in secondary, none in the boil.

I would go easy on the rice DME, but this is your show, so don't let the way I did it get in the way of your creativity. Try it out and see how it is!

Side note. For more lemon grass flavor, check out motueka hops. I added some in a ginger ale I made and they really lemon grassed it up.

 

[rodwha]

I wondered about the rice DME. I don't mind it thinning it a little. It's not like you'd really taste rice…

Is that ginger ale as in the soda?

I'll have to look and see if MoreBeer offers those hops.

 

[rodwha]

Negative on the hops… What kind of flavor do they have? Maybe I can find something similar.

 

[Nilrac]

Why do you soak the Chili's in vodka? I am trying to get ideas on doing a spicy Ipa. Would soaking then in whisky go well do you think?

 

[LaffnJack]

The vodka soak is to kill the nasties that might be living in the chills. Vodka is used because it does not add any flavors to the beer.

-J-

 

[rodwha]

Isn't the soak also to help extract the flavors?

I'd not think whiskey would go well unless it was whiskey themed. I LOVE whiskey, especially rye.