22 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

Did anyone catch this in a recent AHA email? THIS looks like something I would like to try. I know that seems weird but I think it would be a cool beer to brew. Maybe a fall beer. Thoughts?

[Genesee Ted]

Recent? It says 2016

[Big Nake]

Included in an email this week.

[Poptop]

I'd be interested in doing something like this as well.

[Big Nake]

I'd be interested in doing something like this as well.

The peppers have me very interested.  The cocoa powder and honey not as much.  My experience with honey seems to be that of "jet fuel"... honey makes HOT beer that has to settle down and age a little bit but one pound into the boil might be okay.  I'm also not sure what the cocoa powder (unsweetened) would do but I'm envisioning it being kind of like a mexican chocolate with the peppers in there.  I have a metric ton of these dried pepper pods so now the questions would be 1) which variety and 2) how would you introduce them to the boil?  Cut the stems off, cut up the peppers and drop them in?  Just drop them in whole?  I might try it once when I have some 1056 hanging around.  

 

Ps.  I have Pasilla, Morita, Guajullo, Nuevo Mexico and Ancho.  

[jayb151]

I was interested until I saw the gravity. Then I was REALLY interested. 

 

It's nice to see some different and interesting beers that are still of a moderate abv. this one looks pretty good, might have to keep it in mind when it starts to get cool out (if summer will ever come)!

I like the idea of Ancho

[Big Nake]

It could be really nice and I suppose it could be "just fine" but I can't imagine that it would be really bad.  I have some pale chocolate that I think I would use in place of regular chocolate and I always have Special B in the house.  Could it get tedious having 5 gallons of it?  I guess we're going to find out! 

[Genesee Ted]

When I use the dried chili’s to cook with, I rehydrate them. The water is pretty bitter from that so I’d probably rehydrate and discard that liquid before I removed the stems and/or seeds, depending on how spicy I wanted it to be

[Big Nake]

When I use the dried chili’s to cook with, I rehydrate them. The water is pretty bitter from that so I’d probably rehydrate and discard that liquid before I removed the stems and/or seeds, depending on how spicy I wanted it to be

Yeah, I was wondering about that.  I also rehydrate them and I take the stems off and sometimes remove the seeds... other times not.  I could see cutting off the stems and shaking out the seeds but then just adding the pods (dry) to the boiling wort to see how it came out.  The recipe doesn't mention any prep for the peppers.  

[djinkc]

I've used chocolate in various forms and chilies but never together - I have no clue why.  This sounds interesting.  FWIW when I have used pasilla and/or poblano I have just cut them up and used late in the boil.  My masa poblano beer has gotten compliments.  I've never used dried but FWIW I quit rehydrating for chili.  I grind them up for custom chili powder.  Just had some enchilada sauce last night I made that way and had no bitterness problem.

[Poptop]

I think the cocoa powder with the chili's would play very nice together. Somehow I can taste it.  I also think rough chopping the peppers would be a good idea.  Lastly I think I would toast the peppers in a dry skillet to wake up any of the remaining oils and add a bit of toasty flavor.  Add them to secondary or at flame out.

As a thought, replace the honey with Agave Nectar.

[Big Nake]

I think the cocoa powder with the chili's would play very nice together. Somehow I can taste it.  I also think rough chopping the peppers would be a good idea.  Lastly I think I would toast the peppers in a dry skillet to wake up any of the remaining oils and add a bit of toasty flavor.  Add them to secondary or at flame out.

As a thought, replace the honey with Agave Nectar.

Yeah, that's how you might prepare the peppers ordinarily.  I could see chopping them so that more of the pepper is exposed to the boil but I have never really boiled them so maybe they will just completely break down in the boil so chopping them isn't necessary.  Not sure on the toasting thing.  It's surprising there wasn't more info in the recipe.  I definitely think I'm going to try this though.  

[Poptop]

I'm going to make an attempt as well.  Right after a golden lager.  

Perhaps 1056 or 1450

[Poptop]

Holy Mole.........................

 

https://www.beeradvo...l-of-mole-beer/

[SchwanzBrewer]

I'm not a fan of pepper beers. Most I've tried and up tasting like salsa or are so hot it's unpleasant. Good luck on these, please report your results!

[Big Nake]

This beer recipe popped back into my head this weekend as I was putting together recipes for some 1099 Whitbread I have coming up. I put a recipe together based on the original but with some tweaks including NO honey. I don't know why exactly except that my experiences with honey have not been great. I also made some mods to get the beer around 5% and used more base malt to account for the missing honey. Otherwise I think it's in the zip code. Check it out and LMK if you see any glaring issues.

[neddles]

Just the base beer looks great. I’d like to try that. But, if you nail the right amounts of chocolate and chilis (Im no help on that) it could be a very nice beer.

[Poptop]

I think your recipe looks very good and I'm glad you re-lit this thread.  How my mind tastes a beer like this, it hopes that it has a bit of a thickness to it.  Based on your system and process, would 9.5# of grain be on the thin side, in the middle or more?

[HVB]

I personally would not add the powder and peppers at 10 minutes.  I would not want to boil them for that long.  I would treat them like a hop WP addition.  I may h ave missed it but what temp do you plan to mash at?  This seems like a good 154 beer to me.

[Big Nake]

The original recipe called for a mash at 152-154 and I was thinking 152.  I made a couple of tweaks and I didn't want to make so many that it wasn't the same beer.  I could see getting to FO and then adding the chocolate powder and chiles and letting them steep for 5-10 minutes with the lid on... does that sound better?  Adding them with 10 minutes is also from the original recipe along with the 6 ounces, ½ ounce, etc.  I do feel like we have enough brewing experience to make adjustments so whatever you see that would make it better, I'm down.  9.5 pounds of fermentables on my system would probably come to a 4.5% or so beer.