Testing Jalapeño Ale

[rodwha]

Initially I was helped by a fellow on another forum making a jalapeño beer. It began as a cream ale but became a blonde (Smokin' Hot Blonde) over time.

I was told to roast the jalapenos at 350* for 30 mins and slice them thin, using half at the end of the boil and making an extract in vodka with the other half to use as a "dry pepper" addition.

It has been worked up to what a few of us feel is about perfect. But I just had to know what the boil vs the dry pepper did.

All at 14 mins in the boil had a faint taste with a little bit of spice that kicks in as you go (nothing over the top). But there's about no aroma.

Today I'm trying #2 and I find a fair amount of aroma and flavor along with a bit of spice (1/3 of the way through though).

So neither is all that great. But to be fair I had to put of brew days and placed the jalapenos in the freezer. After thawing them they were quite mushy and lacked the nice smell of raw jalapenos after slicing. Maybe this effected them terribly.

I'm not sure if I'll do this again to see or just keep going as I have.

Now to work on a Serrano and habanero beer...

 

[Covrich]

Habenero beer lol

You going to work on the same methods?

 

[domskidom]

I think it's worth trying a third brew as it sounds like you'll nail it soon. I love the idea of a chilli beer, but thought it would be best suited to a stout or porter base. What hop / fermentables combination did you use?

 

[MickDundee]

I think it's worth trying a third brew as it sounds like you'll nail it soon. I love the idea of a chilli beer, but thought it would be best suited to a stout or porter base. What hop / fermentables combination did you use?

Eden Mill do a ginger and chilli porter and I found it didn't have enough if either flavour.

 

[rodwha]

I had attempted a habanero strong ale. I meant for it to be very hot and decided a strong beer was a good backbone for something you couldn't handle many of anyway. I didn't use enough peppers so.

My jalapeño blonde recipe (converted to metric) is roughly (19.9L):

3.63 kg 6-row
340 g crystal 20
227 g carafoam (it doesn't help)
28 g Mount Hood (5.6%) @ 70 mins
5 jalapenos roasted @ 350* for 30 mins, sliced thin, and used @ 14 mins in the boil
5 jalapenos raw, sliced thin, placed in vodka for a couple of weeks and added as a dry pepper addition
US-05 yeast

1.049/1.010
5.2% (liquor adds ~0.4%)
19 IBUs
4 SRM

This beer, despite 2.7 vols of carbonation, always suffers from extremely poor head retention for some reason.

The above use of jalapenos is what I've always done, though began with just 6 and worked it up.

 

[OxfordNick]

Banger Brewing in Vegas make a rather good Jalepeno Hefeweizen - I have to admit that I had already had a couple before I did the brewery tour so its all a bit hazy but I think that they said they just roast up the peppers & add them about 1/2 way thru the boil - might be worth dropping them a note - they are good guys & might share the secret ?

 

[BeerCat]

I reckon your onto something with the vodka and chillies. I would add it when serving. Adding roasted though must make it really mushy? Raw ones would be better suited i think and make a clearer essence.
Would like to make some for my mead. Interested to hear how you get on. :)

 

[Dutto]

I find the "started with just six and worked it up" comment interesting.

In the last three weeks I have bought Jalapeño chillies from Lidl, Tesco and Morrisons for cooking (chilli beef, pulled pork, coleslaw and soup) and none of them had any of the "kick" that I normally expect from a Jalapeño!

This afternoon I knocked up a pizza for myself and used a couple of Birdseye chillies instead of my usual Jalapeños and got a tremendous result.

I wonder if the Jalapeño chillies we get in UK supermarkets are grown under hydroponic conditions and the current batch just aren't up to scratch when it comes to "heat".

Anyone else had a similar experience?

PS

Much as I love chillies I'm not sure that I want them in my beer ... :nono:

... but maybe will give it a try anyway! :thumb: :thumb:

 

[rodwha]

I reckon your onto something with the vodka and chillies. I would add it when serving. Adding roasted though must make it really mushy? Raw ones would be better suited i think and make a clearer essence.
Would like to make some for my mead. Interested to hear how you get on. :)

I like it in the bottle so as not to mess with anything. Pop the top, pour, and enjoy.

Roasting them certainly does make them mushy. I'm not exactly certain why I was told to do so (all of them initially but have only been doing it for those for the boil). That was another test I thought of doing (comparing raw vs roasted).

You mentioned peppers in a mead. What I've noticed is that the flavor, aroma, and spice start to degrade after about a month and begins to nosedive rather quickly.

Not counting these two test batches I've brewed a jalapeño (cream ale or blonde) 6 times now.

 

[rodwha]

I find the "started with just six and worked it up" comment interesting.

In the last three weeks I have bought Jalapeño chillies from Lidl, Tesco and Morrisons for cooking (chilli beef, pulled pork, coleslaw and soup) and none of them had any of the "kick" that I normally expect from a Jalapeño!

This afternoon I knocked up a pizza for myself and used a couple of Birdseye chillies instead of my usual Jalapeños and got a tremendous result.

I wonder if the Jalapeño chillies we get in UK supermarkets are grown under hydroponic conditions and the current batch just aren't up to scratch when it comes to "heat".

Anyone else had a similar experience?

PS

Much as I love chillies I'm not sure that I want them in my beer ... :nono:

... but maybe will give it a try anyway! :thumb: :thumb:

Talking to a fellow lover of jalapenos on a cigar forum who grows them told me that once they've matured a bit they must be stressed to get good heat from them. They need to be kept in the sun where it's hot and kept from water to the point they look bad, only giving them just enough water to keep from shriveling up. Otherwise they aren't much different than a bell pepper.

I've bought many (I typically buy 10-14 every two weeks) that were duds with just no spice to them.

I thought the same thing about peppers (or any fruit/vegetable) in my beer. I was convinced with as much as I love peppers to try it. A test batch will tell you, and if you truly love raw jalapenos then I'd suggest, as it was for me, to try a basic pale beer with no flavor of aroma hop additions so that the peppers are the star. It's how I found out, and it's become a staple with several people loving it.

 

[Dutto]

Thanks for that. :thumb:

I discovered when in Spain that buying the "sweet chillies" (terrific when smeared with a bit of olive oil and roasted on a BBQ) was a bit like Russian Roulette because with every dozen or so "sweet chillies" was one that would take your head off.

Nowadays in the UK it seems that we have the reverse!

I have couple of Scotch Bonnets and half a dozen Birdseye in the veg basket so I think I'll nip down to Wilco's later and buy a Cerveza. They're on offer at �£8 and with the Mexican heritage should be good for a chilli additive. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[OxfordNick]

In the last three weeks I have bought Jalapeño chillies from Lidl, Tesco and Morrisons for cooking (chilli beef, pulled pork, coleslaw and soup) and none of them had any of the "kick" that I normally expect from a Jalapeño!

Strangely enough, Im about half way thru a book I picked up second hand about the early history & development of the chilli pepper - The title & author escape me at the moment (will add them when I remember) but I think that he said that there are two main types of Jalapeno - the original hot one from Mexico & a less-hot strain that was developed for the US market ; both are widely available & sold as Jalapenos so its difficult to predict how hot they will be.

One of the more interesting chillies Im growing this year is the Lemon drop (Aji Limon) which has a decent heat + a real lemon-citrus hit - normally I make sauce / salsa / powder from them but im tempted to try some with the "Bargain" tin of georgie winter warmer that Ive still got knocking around..

Edit - Book is "Peppers: A Story of Hot Pursuits - Amal Naj"

 

[VW911]

I grow lots of chillies - ranging from the mild to the superhots. Over 60 varieties last year, but whittled that down to about 50 this year.
One of the best results I've had beerwise was to add a dried chilli to each bottle at bottling time, allowing them to rehydrate in the beer.
Really good results from Zimbabwe Birds and Demon Reds, but the California Reaper was just a tad OTT!!!

 

[Dutto]

Plan "A" rapidly became Plan "B" when I discovered that my local Wilco didn't have a Cerveza ...

... so I got a Pilsner instead on the basis that it would be a nice light beer for summer and experimentation. :thumb:

Then I started thinking about the chillies and decided that as it was a first brew and the Jalapeños can be an unknown quantity I would put 6 small Birdseye Chillies in the FV with the wort.

At the same time I would also start a Pepper Vodka with a litre of vodka in a DJ (to give me plenty of "shaking space") and add whatever chillies I had in the kitchen.

These turned out to be a couple of Scotch Bonnets, a Scotch Bonnet lookalike (not really sure what it is), two Jalapeños and half a dozen Birdseyes.

I've made Pepper Vodka before (a great winter drink) and expect this batch to be virtually undrinkable due to the heat; but hopefully useful to add as an adjunct to the beer at bottling time if the Birdseyes in the wort fail to produce the required "kick".

One thing for sure is that the vodka won't be wasted. If it's not needed for the beer and too hot on its own I will just dilute it with more vodka and put it to one side for winter! :thumb: :thumb:

Here they are up and running, so now comes the hoping and waiting!! :whistle:

 

[rodwha]

@Dutto: Very nice! Please do come back and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Alexislife]

This has been an interesting read, I've got some chilli's growing at the moment (Ring of Fire & Paper lanterns) although the plants have only just started flowering. Was thinking of doing something with beer ad chilli, cam across a recipe for a Mango ad Habanero IPA on brewersfriend which is quite tempting.

Only commercial chilli beer I've tried is the Mikkeller Texas Ranger, bit of a kick from the chilli on the first sip and then got hotter as you drank, was glad I only got a half in the end as I had it at the beginning of a night out and it jaded my taste buds meaning the next beer or two tasted funny.

 

[VW911]

Paper Lanterns are well known for dropping their flowers before the pods have set. It's always a good idea to hand pollinate them with a soft paint brush...

 

[rodwha]

@Alexislife: You could start low and only use a couple of peppers to see how it fares. From there it ought to give you an idea of what the revision may need.

I like hot (I eat fresh jalapenos, serranos, and several Thai chilis), but I didn't want my jalapeño beer to be overwhelming. SWMBO likes mild spice and she loves my beer.

Now my habanero strong ale I intend to truly have smokin' hot, but that's why I chose a strong ale backbone.

After my failed first habanero beer I bought a habanero to try. I told SWMBO to have something to make as I was only going to eat half assuming it would try to kill me. Wasn't that bad at all, but then my new found pepper loving friends said the first half is the easy half. I have another pepper in the fridge. I aim to take another video eating that one, but I'm hesitant to eat the whole thing as they suggested. Maybe slice it down the middle and eat that half, or maybe across the middle and eat the end with the stem. But then you only live once and I'm known for rebounding...

 

[Alexislife]

@VW911 @rodwha Thanks for the tips, I grew various plants last year and had to hand pollinate most of them. the biggest problem was the whitefly infestation that took out a few of the plants. Hoping the weather will improve here soon so I can move them outside.

Good luck eating the Habanero, I try to take it a little easier on eating too much extra hot chillies these days following mistakenly taking a salsa size scoop of Mad Dog 357 sauce on a tortilla while ago.

 

[rodwha]

I actually ate a whole habanero while on vacation. Started with a half. No big deal again. Went for the other half and began chewing as I found my stomach beginning to burn a little. But after eating it all my stomach was very upset for about 10-15 mins.