Turn up the Heat?

[DAVEL3]

Hi gang

What is the best way to add chillies to a cider...dry hop them or make a vodka tincture...Also does any body have any favorite chillies that they like to add to cider?...looking to add some heat and chilli character to the cider.

Thanks
Dave

 

[bembel]

Vodka tincture would be my choice since it's easier to fine tune the dose.

Jeff Carlson, who has won more cider awards than God, made an amazing cider with Jalapeño that I got to taste a few weeks ago at the Cider Day comp. I think Jalapeño works better than the hotter varieties as it still has distinctive flavor.

 

[WVMJ]

Penderys is a good source of dried peppers. You have 2 goals, one is to add heat and one flavor. You can get dried Anchos and soak them in hot water overnight and include them in your must with the water to add flavor. Depending on how much heat you want, an alcohol extraction on some of the long slender hot peppers, would allow you to control the heat level before bottling, everclear is a good one to use to extract with. You could also get some chilE powder (not chilI powder) and extract it with everclear. We grow peppers and roast them and saved the just from them until we had enough for a batch of mead, then did the everclear extract on some superhots and added that at bottling. WVMJ

 

[brewbama]

Penzey's. https://www.penzeys.com/

 

[dmtaylor]

Stick with jalapenos, about 5-9 peppers per 5 gallons. Chop them up, seeds and all, and either boil them in a quart of finished cider then add the flavored cider back into the main batch, or soak a few in a small volume of cider for a few days, then add that to the main batch. This can be done at the very end of fermentation just before you are ready to bottle.

 

[madscientist451]

The actual heat in whatever chilles you use is never the same. Using the tincture method allows you to do blending trials and get the flavor you are looking for. If you put the chilles in the cider during or after fermentation, only put them in 1/2 the batch , then if it comes out too hot, you can blend back some of your untreated cider.

 

[WVMJ]

Should have included the link to Penderys http://www.penderys.com/ If you use green jalepenos you risk the green pepper flavor coming out, if you could find red ones that are ripe or dried ones that would be much better. WVMJ

 

[DAVEL3]

Thanks for all the info everyone it wa very helpful! Howzzz about yeast selection..is one better than another to use with chilli/hot peppers..say a ale yeast vs a cider or wine yeast?

Thanks again!

Dave

PS...can't get everclear in ME, NH, or MA