Anyone ever done a beer with Jalapeno or anything of the sort? If so, what did you do and how did it turn out?
Best recipe for a pepper beer: make a great beer, pour a pint, bite into a jalapeno between sips. The beauty is that you don’t get stuck with 5+ gallons of pepper beer and you can make it hotter or milder depending on your mood that day just by subbing in a different pepper - I highly recommend trying this with razor-thin slices of habanero at least once.
I have interest in brewing a pepper beer as well, so I looked around and found this on another board from long ago. haven’t made it yet, so however good it is would be unknown to me.
Brew Type: All Grain Date: 12/19/2004
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beers
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Volume: 7.39 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2 SRM) Grain 73.7 %
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1 SRM) Grain 10.5 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (4 SRM) Grain 10.5 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2 SRM) Grain 5.3 %
1.00 oz Cluster [7.0%] (60 min) Hops 24.6 IBU
1.00 oz Liberty Leaf [4.3%] (25 min) Hops 10.5 IBU
1.00 oz Liberty Leaf [4.3%] (15 min) Hops 7.5 IBU
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
7.00 items Jalapeno pepper (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale
Notes
Slit, rinse & roast Jalapenos 20-30 minutes at 350F, slice and soak in Vodka overnight. Add 2 Jalapenos at 15 mins. Add two more at high kraeusen, Add 2-3 more roasted peppers to the secondary depending on how much pepper bite you prefer. Peppers vary from crop to crop so use 5-7 depending…
I actually worked up a decent Kolsch extract brew with a Mexican flair. Turned out pretty good, but I’m not a huge fan of having heat following crispness in my beer. We used jalepeno to heat it, some lemon zest, and cummin for flavoring. Figured these Mexican flavors would work well. Just took a guess at the amounts. It was our first spiced beer. We called it “Pablo’s Kolsch”. Do a search for it on Google and you’ll find a complete write up, with images.
I love habaneros but didn’t know if that might be a bit much for a beer. I soak habs in vodka for bloody marys.
I was thinking a very simple beer with some pepper flavoring would be good.
Thanks for the Pablo’s Kolsch input. Interesting.
It is pretty crazy that you went from cooking to drinking in two weeks despite bottling the beer.
A guy brewed a ‘standard’ saison that he ‘dry-peppered’ with 3 habaneros for our holiday party. I LOOOOVE habaneros, and this was a well-made beer, but I am with the other posters, I’d rather eat something habanero’d then drink something crisp (or hoppy). One guy in his club commented that when drinking a full pint of it, after awhile you start to perceive the saison character and not just the heat. Might make for a cool drinking experience.
Shouldn’t be bad for a small batch. I have a jalapeno mead that has served me well and most people really enjoy.
here’s my simple jalapeno recipe that i’ve won awards for, been making it for a few years now and everybody loves it. not too spicy.
9 lb 2 row
11 oz crystal 40
1/2 oz saaz at 60 min
1056 yeast
mash at 155
ferment at 62
cut up 6 jalapenos and soak in vodka for a couple weeks then pour the vodka in the keg as you are transferring the beer.
I’ve made a few ancho chili beers. The first had them at the end of the boil- too many for the scottish 80/- they were in. I ended up blending a small amount of that beer with a baltic porter and made it to the semi-finals of the specialty ale Longshot contest. Since then I’ve turned to steeping the anchos (and other dried chilis) in hot water and then adding to taste when kegging or bottling. In my experience, stouts and porters are good styles that help mask the vegetal character but balance the heat and other desirable aspect of chilis. A little chili goes a long long way.
3rd place specialty beer, MN state fair, 2005. With jalapenos and serranos:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~rohw0009/homebrewing/recipes/2005rubiapicante.htm
edit: makes good chili
I’ve used home-smoked chipotles in a porter. It was good, but I can’t locate the recipe for amounts.
I make a hot pepper beer all the time, it’s one of my favorite staples. I use pale extract and a minimal amount of hops, say Hallertau, just to make it smell like beer, and a simple American ale yeast. I also enjoy messing with some steeped grains that add body, like torrified wheat or flaked rye (I keep diddling with each.) There’s no need to add flavoring grains, as the primary taste will be the peppers.
I’ve found that the key to making pepper beer is putting the peppers in your primary fermenter when you pour in the cooled wort. If you boil the peppers with your wort, you lose most of the chemical that makes peppers hot to boil evaporation. If you’re worried about contamination from the peppers being unclean, you could put them in the secondary instead (the alcohol level of your beer will kill any bacteria at this point.) But I’ve never had a problem with contamination, my pepper beers come out pretty consistent, and since I use a tapered-neck carboy for my secondary, it’s easier to get the peppers into the primary (I use a bucket.)
I always use dehydrated peppers. They’re cheap, readily available in the Mexican food section of almost any grocery store, and your fermenting beer will re-hydrate them and get all the hotness. The great thing about pepper beer is you can adjust the heat really easily depending on which peppers you use. The “Scoville Scale” of hotness (easily found online) tells you which kinds are more potent than others. Start low, and work your way up.
The only problem I’ve come across is that dehydrated bags of peppers tend to have a lot of seeds in the bag. They can clog your racking cane if there are too many of them in your fermenter. What I do is cut a small hole in the corner of the pepper bag, not big enough for the peppers to fit through, then shake it until I’ve gotten most of the seeds out before I put the peppers in my fermenter. If you’re determined to use fresh peppers, be aware that the hotter varieties should be handled with gloves. Dried, this isn’t an issue if you only touch the bag.
Try a batch; if you love hot peppers, they’re a fantastic beer flavor!
My jalapeno porter has won second best of show. I use 2 jalapenos per gallon for “medium” heat. I actually add mine ON BOTTLING DAY, with a unique method that really truly works well. I’ve made this recipe 3 times now, and 3 times it’s been a big hit. I chop them all up, seeds and all, and soak half of the chopped jalapenos in warmed vodka for about 5 hours (microwave it for just a few seconds). For the other half, I remove a few ounces of the finished beer from the fermenter, and boil the jalapenos in the beer for about 5 minutes, then let that cool for about 5 hours. Finally, add all of the boiled jalapeno liquid and the infused vodka to the beer in the bottling bucket. In my experience, this method provides a good level of heat and a ton of fresh green peppery flavor. The Scoville heat is a little bit variable, but I’d say it’s “medium” – not too weak, and not kickass, but enough to piss off anyone who doesn’t know it’s a pepper beer or who doesn’t like things that are too spicy. But it’s all adjustable, of course. The lowest I would go is about 1 jalapeno per gallon. You could try other peppers like serranos, I bet that would be great, but personally I haven’t yet tried any others than jalapeno. If I were to make a habanero beer, I would probably just use like a half of one in 5 gallons, that would be plenty! But use the same method. It really really works great.
Couldn’t agree more - nothing goes with spicy food like a good old C-hopped IPA. It’s got the bite to cut through the strong flavors. That said, there are pepper beers on the shelves that can be sampled. Never been tempted myself.
Thanks for your help guys.
twinsbrewer - I know all too well about handling hot peppers thanks to an unfortunate incident with habaneros. I actually just don’t touch them at all anymore and just use a fork and knife to do the cutting. I soak them in vodka for bloody mary’s as well.
dmtaylo2 - I’m assuming that since you are doing this on bottling day that you only put the liquid into the bottling bucket?
I had actually kind of given up on this idea until I read these two posts. I’m intrigued again.
Yes, only the liquid. Works like a charm. You’ll love it. By the way… the vodka soaking method works with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, spices, you name it. You can make a million different kinds of beer using vodka infusions. Or for soaking peppers, you might even want to try tequila! I used a 50/50 mix of vodka and tequila once, although I don’t really think the tequila showed up in the final beer at all since it was like only one shot in 5 gallons.
[quote=“dustinwwww”]Thanks for the Pablo’s Kolsch input. Interesting.
It is pretty crazy that you went from cooking to drinking in two weeks despite bottling the beer.[/quote]
Yeah, we more or less couldn’t wait to test it. We really didn’t do much drinking on it, honestly, as we didin’t prefer it as much. But, I just opened one a few days ago. It has been about 4 months since bottling. It actually tasted better. Even the heat was slightly less.
[quote=“dustinwwww”]Thanks for your help guys.
twinsbrewer - I know all too well about handling hot peppers thanks to an unfortunate incident with habaneros. I actually just don’t touch them at all anymore and just use a fork and knife to do the cutting. I soak them in vodka for bloody mary’s as well.
dmtaylo2 - I’m assuming that since you are doing this on bottling day that you only put the liquid into the bottling bucket?
I had actually kind of given up on this idea until I read these two posts. I’m intrigued again.[/quote]
Definately use rubber medical gloves when seeding habaneros! A few years ago, I collected about 50 from my garden with the intent of saving the seeds for the following year (like I was going to raise an acre or something!). Anyways, I rubbed out all the seeds. Took about an hour. Hands were on fire for 2 days. Especially fingertips. Nothing worked in easing the pain except a dip in cool water every 3 minutes. Sucked. SUCKED!
yeah, unless you know you like it, brew a small 1 or 2 gallon batch first. I found it less appreciated by my “friends” who know I brew at home.
