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chili beer

J

joe

i may have missed this on another post, but i'm interested in throwing some chili peppers in my secondary.

i've got a relatively hoppy amber beer going right now:


-any ideas as to how many peppers to put in to get a moderate heat buzz?

-should i roast them for flavor and sanitation?


any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated.
 
I have never done this but....

If roast them you may get some char flavor that you do not want.  I would boil them for a min or two to santise them.

As for what kind.  how much heat and what kind of chili flavor do you like/want.  There a so many diff. kinds.

Don
 
I made 1 batch of chili beer and put 1 whole jalapeno in each bottle. 2 months after bottling they were too hot to drink. If I were to do it again I would probably use 4 or 5 peppers( split and with the seeds scraped out) and add to secondary. I just washed them and added. The alcohol in the secondary should be enough to ward off infection. If it really worrys you you could add the split and washed peppers into enough vodka to cover, let sit for around 15 minutes and add it all to secondary. I would not add too much peppers on your first attempt,
it will continue to get hotter as it ages.
 
i thought i'd report back:

the chili beer turned out well overall.  ways to improve: i might have started with a porter or stout - a richer character might have offset the natural chili bite.  next time i'll also make sure i get a lot of flavor in there.  the heat really goes a long way, and i'm glad i only threw in two peppers total (one or two more would have been the end of the batch).
 
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