Best way to do chili pepper IPA

I've mostly heard of people making a tincture and adding in secondary or at bottling/kegging...I hate pepper beers so I don't have any personal experience to speak from.

 

I had one earlier this year on cask at Great Raft, it was their pale ale and it was perhaps one of the best pale ales I have ever had. Not sure how they did it but it had more of the smoke flavor coming thru from the peppers. But then again I just like smoke. They are great people, perhaps you can drop them an email and see what they did. Good luck.

 

You could add them at flameout, or chopped up and added to the fermenter for a few days, to a few weeks. I'd give them a quick dip in star san first. Careful though, they can easily be overdone and turn a beer into fire water quick. Those oils are dissolved easily in alcohol so pull samples every few days if you go the fermenter route.

 

A buddy of mine added 1 habenero (de-seeded and cut into quarters) to a 1-gal side batch of IPA, and it had a nice kick to it. He left it in there for a week and a half. Gave a good tingle on the lips after sipping. It all depends on the size of the pepper, how hot they are, as well as your preference/tolerance to heat, so there are a lot of variables to consider unfortunately.

My advice would be to do what he did. Brew a 6-gal batch and dedicate one gal to a smaller fermenter to 'test' out the amount of heat. Once you get it to your liking, then up the amount for 5-gal. I'd just hate to ruin a 5-gal batch of beer because it was too hot!

 

I did a wheat ale with jalapeños earlier this summer. Without knowing exactly how much you'll want or need, I'd recommend avoiding putting them in the boil. If it's too much pepper then you're stuck. Either make a tincture and add at bottling/kegging after finding the right ratio or you can dry hop with them. I roasted 3 jalapeños then diced them, deseeded, and deveined. I froze them for a day or two to sanitize but it also breaks down the cell walls and helps the extraction. After I kegged I dry hopped in a muslin bag before carbing. After I sampled it at 24 hours it already had a very noticeable pepper presence, both in flavor and heat. I pulled the bag. The keg kicked after 3 months and the pepper was still there. Not hot but just a nice little bite on the finish.

 

Safbrew T-58 will give you pepper and spice. Used it in a Wit once.

 

I'm looking for some help on brewing a hatch chili smoked Porter. Any help on a recipe or just advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

I used a habanero tincture and the final beer tasted like shit. I recommend seeded and peeled chiles into secondary.

 

Shoot me a conversation so that we don't hijack this thread...I am the Grand Poobah of Smoked Hatch Chile Porters

 

I've had great success with a tincture made with dried chilis, but these were big, sweeter, dark beers. I could see fresh chilis in secondary working better for an IPA, even though bitter and spicy wouldn't be my thing. Maybe with a NEIPA?

 

Anyway you would email me a recipe and some advice. I'm actually thinking about entering something into a homebrew contest up here in Wisconsin. My email is [email protected]

 

I just did it - here was my process.

Brewed 5.5 gals of a big IIPA (OG 1.10). After primary fermentation ended (10 days) I dry hopped w/ 3oz of whole leaf cascades for 5 days. The day I dry hopped I pulled (3) Thai chilis from my garden, roasted 'em, peeled off the super charred bits, sliced 'em in half, and tinctured in 1oz of grey goose. After 5 days of Dry Hops, I transferred 1 gallon from the batch into a 2 gallon bucket and pitched the entire mason jar from the tincture - booze, chilis and seeds - for an additional 5 days.

Just bottled this past weekend, but the sample I pulled was spectacular. Just the right amount of heat to cut the malt and hops in the beer. If it tastes anything like that when it's carb'd I'll do another batch, but a full 5 gallons next time.

Couple misc notes -
I used homegrown hops (Cascades & Centennials), so my base beer will most likely never be recreated.
I used homegrown Thai Chilis, so much like the hops, I'm sure they'll vary year to year.
My wort came in a little high on the OG but finished pretty strong - FG 1.020.


Good Luck, hope this helps!