The ghost chile.

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mrmekon

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I have a few dehydrated Bhut Jolokia peppers (ghost chile). I haven't tried one yet. But I was thinking a cool way to try it and pass it off on my friends (with warning, of course) would be a 1-gallon test brew. I have the ingredients on hand to make a basic extract sweet stout, and I'm thinking of adding cocoa powder and a chile to that.

I couldn't find any cases of anyone making ghost chile or habanero beer, just jalepenos and a few less spicy peppers. I was thinking of rehydrating about a third of a pepper in hot water then dropping it into the primary for a few days. I'm shooting for noticeable spice, but still capable of consuming. Hopefully the stout will be sweet and bitter enough to provide some balance.

Recipe:
Steep 10 oz crystal 60, 10 oz chocolate malt
12 oz light DME (60 min)
4 oz light DME (5 min)
0.2 oz cluster (60 min)
0.25 oz fuggles (5 min)
2 oz (?) cocoa powder in primary
? oz bhut jolokia pepper in primary (3 days)
bottle harvested yeast from something... maybe a Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch

Brewtarget estimates OG 1.054 (boil 1.041), FG 1.013, ABV 5.4, IBU 26.5, and pitch black.

Also, I might want the FG higher than that... what's the best way to do that? I could use more DME, but I don't really need the additional alcohol.

Suggestions, comments, and insults are welcome.
 
Wow that could be awful hot. I saw Man vs. Food (Adam) try and eat one of those ghost chilies and it nearly burned a hole in his stomach. Those are one dangerous pepper! I can see someone taking a swig and getting blasted by the heat and then gulp more to quench the burn only to be filled with more of the same! If you do this you need to report results for sure. Including pictures of the drinker's faces :D
 
Ghost peppers are no joke. One of my friends ordered a few oz's of them and has been messing around with them. He made Tika Masala with a few habaneros and half a ghost pepper and it was crazy hot. He made some regular curry with no other peppers other then 1 ghost pepper and it was at the upper limit of what I could eat and still enjoy it. I paid the price for it later with my stomach hurting all day and again a few hours later when my butt turned into a flamethrower. They are potent little bastards, be careful.
 
I have eaten them on two separate occasions and they are hot. I can only liken it to being pepper sprayed twice and then again after the effects wear off. They are not a joke. I had uncontrollable snot, tears and sweat running for 5 minutes after I ate the pepper. I will say one thing though, they have amazing flavor for .000098 seconds before the eat overpowers it.

And the worst part is the aftermath. It is physically more painful than a peptic ulcer and you can feel the pepper working it's way through your GI tract. And if you eat enough of it, your "anal lips" will feel like you rubbed Icy Hot on it in copious amounts.

FYI I used Habanero peppers and Scotch bonnets copiously. As in I will eat 2 peppers on a Philly Cheese Steak sandwhich and not feel anywhere near a few nibbles of a Ghost chile.
 
I had a hot pepper stout (not ghost peppers) before. The thing that sucks about hot peppers in beer is that it totally bypasses your tongue and burns the everliving hell out of your throat. I love hot stuff, but this beer was barely enjoyable. Couldn't imagine something like that with a ghost pepper!
 
they don't look all that mean!

img_0248.jpg


We've had these since October 2009.. they have grown from 2" tall to this (we had 3, one didn't make it)

No chile's yet though!
 
1/4 of a habanero was quite hot in a 1gal batch for me, i'd hesitate to add more than that, and a ghost is quite a bit hotter
 
PHP:
And if you eat enough of it, your "anal lips" will feel like you rubbed Icy Hot on it in copious amounts.

That's enough for me. LMAO.
 
I've eaten this pepper (and grown it) - or at least a variant called naga jolokia - and trust me, there is no way even 1/10 of a rehydrated pepper will be drinkable in a 1 gallon batch to all but the most serious of chile heads.

I'm a chile head and I doubt I would enjoy it. I make habanero poppers and eat those no problem. The naga REALLY messed me up man.
 
If you must do it, I would just dip the chile in the beer for an hour and then do something else with it. The capsaicin will transfer with the alcohol fairly fast.

I don't get it at all (chiles in beer), but that should be enough.
 
I made an american BMC style lager with a small habenero in each bottle, the heat is strong but so is the flavour of the chilli, I like chilli flavour but that was ridiculous, I'll just use it whilst cooking in future I think. Using chilli sensibly can add a great new dimension to your brews so I would certainly give it a go.
 
I don't get it at all (chiles in beer), but that should be enough.

Never had one before, and I'm not that big on really spicy stuff, but red pepper chocolate bars and jalapeño ice cream are two of the greatest deserts I've ever had, so it follows that a sweet stout and pepper should be good too... right? :drunk:
 
I made an american BMC style lager with a small habenero in each bottle, the heat is strong but so is the flavour of the chilli, I like chilli flavour but that was ridiculous, I'll just use it whilst cooking in future I think. Using chilli sensibly can add a great new dimension to your brews so I would certainly give it a go.

If you wanna give it a shot again, try a small amount of habanero with a generous amount of ancho. The ancho gives it a nice earthy baseline and the hab gives it that sharp back of the throat heat. They make a good combo.

I was hoping to get the habanero flavor out like you were but there's just too much heat paired with it... mixing and matching works well.
 
Thanks Ill bear that in mind. The first one was just an experiment to see how it turned out. It was a success, I managed to get too much chilli :D Next time it will be a chocolate porter with a hint of chilli in the secondary I think.
 
I did a chili beer with 5 or 6 varieties of chilis. The two that really came through, though, were the roasted chipotle at 1 hour and the habanero at 15 minutes. It had good heat, good pepper flavor and the burn just kind of simmered. Everyone who tried it liked it. Now I have to figure out how to make a 5 gallon batch.
 
I'll tell you what.....you try it and see if you still want to pass it off on your friends. I've had it and I had tears in my eyes for about 15 minutes. I didn't feel normal again for about 30 minutes.

Those things are no joke!!
 
I had a friend who used to say "it's not hot, until you have to freeze your toilet paper" that being said, my understanding is that Alcohol is very good at liberating capsaicin. If I put half a Jalapeno in my pint jar of pickles I might get a gentle warming. Put the same amount in a pint of Vodka and it will be much more powerful.

That might be a simple way to try this. Get a bottle of the type of beer you want to make. Drop a piece of the chili in and recap it, leave it for a week and see what you get.
 
I skipped the cocoa powder. It's 20 days in, down to 1.020 from 1.056... taking its sweet time, but it's close. Hydro sample tasted like a thin, flavorless stout with a slight pepper burn on the finish. Not excessive, and at this quantity it would be quite enjoyable if I knew how to make an extract stout taste any good. Stay tuned, it's probably better when carbed.
 
I made a habanero beer,

9 lbs 2 row
1 oz bullion hops 30 min

5 habaneros and 1 ancho, slightly roasted over an open flame and "dry peppered" in secondary.

TOO FREAKING HOT!!

It was delicious.

I have overwintered ghost peppers and the dreaded 7 POT for the last 3 years.

I let the ghost go, the 7 POT is a KEEPER! It may not be hotter, but it is as hot, tastes better and produces more.
 
Hmmm. Now I'm wondering about playing around with chiles. I HATE YOU GUYS! haha.

What about a single pepper in a 750ml of Belgian Golden Strong? What pepper would go with the fruitiness of a Belgian?
 
In my experience with beers containing chile, not ghost mind you, they don't tend to be too spicy but have that lingering chile heat. You definitely get a little up front bite but the lingering heat is what will get you and I imagine with the ghost chile that will be substantial.
 
I just made 3 half pints of a tomato based hot sauce using the Bhut Jolokia pepper. Actually 2 of them, I got fresh from a friend in Columbus, OH. I have recovered all the seeds and will be growing some this coming season. I have 3 more left in the fridge.

Jolokia hot sauce here, if anyone wants to try some: http://www.cajohns.com (shameless plug)
 
I made a chili beer using both fresh and roasted hatch chilies. Hatch chilies are not known for heat, so there is only a hint of heat. It does have great chili flavor though.

Personally I wouldn't want to drink a beer that made my stomach hurt or burned my throat, but I'm not that big on spicy food. If you're trying to balance chili flavor with the heat, you may want to find a less spicy pepper with a similar or compatible flavor and use those for the majority of the flavor and a small amount of this ghost chili for heat.

Unlike fruit, it does not take much chili to get the flavor and heat additions. I did 2.5 gallons of chili beer with 7 chilis, and the flavor is very prominent. If you are going to do just 1 gallon, I'd say maybe 2-3 mild chilies and maybe an eighth or less of the spicy chili. Give it a taste after about 5 days and see if it needs more time.If the spiciness never builds up, add more of the spicy chili and let it sit for a few more days.
 
Final taste test was very enjoyable, and I can officially recommend it. While drinking it it has a very nice smokiness on the finish, and no burn. The burn builds up slowly, takes about 10 minutes to reach full-strength, and full-strength is very mild. You just get a warm feeling in the back of your mouth and throat. It's a very strange sensation, but everybody who tried a bottle liked it, even those who aren't fans of spicy food.
 
I made a chile pepper ale this spring that was a big hit. It was basically an english pale ale with a pound of roasted and sliced Anaheim peppers in the secondary. Anaheim peppers are pretty mild so you had a really nice aroma and got some chile flavor in the aftertaste, but it didn't overpower you.

This winter I think I'm going to make a chocolate chipotle stout. Something about the smokiness of the peppers and the chocolate seems like it would go well together.
 
So, how much of the evil chili pod did you use?

"Just the tip", if you will. I cut off about one cm off the tip of one pepper after rehydrating it. Unfortunately I didn't weigh it, but it was about 1/16th of a single pepper. This was in one gallon, so I'd say half a pepper in a 5 gallon batch would probably be similar, if maybe a bit spicier.
 
I'd totally try a ghost chile beer. If anything I'd just advise drinkers to prime their systems a few days in advance of drinking it. lol
 
My habanero ale was excellent.

My brother in law and his buddy would sip it and eat plain tortilla chips.

It was HOT.
 
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