habanero chocolate stout - how many peppers

I see this question asked on several forums but never a good answer.  Granted, heat is a suggestive thing but surely someone has an exact number of peppers in mind that would add the "right" amount of heat without overpowering.

I'm looking to make a chocolate stout and thinking of adding 10? habanero peppers to the fermentation bucket after fermentation stops.  Leave for one week then move to my corny keg.  This is for 5 gallons of chocolate outmeal stout.

If you've ever had habanero sculpin (Ballast Point), my goal is something just a little less hot than that and it would be perfect.

I'm just thinking of soaking the peppers (split, leaving seeds in) in vodka 24 hours before adding to a meshbag before adding to the bucket.  Thoughts?

Greetings rittinger - I have read in many articles that in a situation such as you explained, its best to experiment and taste the combination.

So, put a precisely measured amount of  un carbonated  beer in a glass and add a precisely measured amount of your habanero / vodka mixture.  Then taste and adjust.  Run the math on the final numbers and now you have the ?right? addition.

You may not be spot on with the first batch, but you will have a very good starting point for the next batch.

Hope this helps!

Are you planning on adding the vodka too? If so it will get hot, if you dont it will be less hot since capsaicin is soluable in Ethanol.
Also consider that not every Pod (or is it Pot?, has the same hottness to it.
Btw, if you also want to have the habanero falvour to it there are some mild habanero strains, you could mix and match to make it perfect.

Hadn't thought about capsaicin being soluble in alcohol. maybe a quick boil of the peppers will work (but again, I'm worried about losing heat).  One of the earlier replies suggested a reasonable approach on how to calculate the amount of peppers (add x ounces of peppers to x ounces of beer, adjust as needed, do the math to reach 5 gallons) but I don't have a chili extract and don't want to wait 7 days for each experiment using portions of a habanero.  Found this recipe: https://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/512614/double-chocolate-habanero-stout - which calls for 8oz.

Keep in mind, too, that capsaicin is often perceived as quite bitter. Hot sauces offset that with vinegar, but in beer, that bitterness can quickly compete with the bitterness from hops and your darker malts. Less is definitely more -- the habanero sculpin is an example that, to me, is just a bit too far on the spice/bitter spectrum.

And please let us know how many you'll end up using/how it turned out.

I've used Habanero peppers a few times and find that roasting them, I use a propane torch, cut them into quarters and add them directly to the beer after fermentation, works really well.  2 per gallon will get you to the Habanero Sculpin level of heat.  I personally like 3 per gallon. If you have ever tried Viva Habanera by Night Shift Brewing it is about that level of heat.

I ended up adding 8 habs, which I washed, froze, dunked in starsan, quartered and added to secondary fermentation bucket seeds and all.  i have a spigot on the bucket and will taste every couple days for 7 days.  Keep you posted.

Final answer: 8 habs (frozen, quartered/seeds and all, dunked in starsan) added to the secondary fermentation bucket for 7 days then kegged.  This provides the perfect amount of heat in my opinion (little tingle, little burn in the back of throat), drinkable by everyone pretty much.

I'm guessing for something in the heat range of Sriracha Hot Stout by Rogue, you'd need at least 10 peppers maybe as many as 15 for 5 gallons.
If I did it again, I'd probably go with 2 peppers per gallon.

Very happy with the result.