Hot pepper beer?

I did a smoked ancho chili porter last year. Turned out great!

 

You will have to ask @dmtaylor. I don't drink hot pepper beers.

 

I have never heard anyone mention smoke with habaneros. You use them fresh? Or you smoke/roast them? I hate pepper beers, but I am curious about your experiences

 

Habanyeros have a smoky flavor. Best way to get it is dehydrating first, then rough grind them. It is advised to use a face mask with cartridges or grind out side. The dry particulate matter that gets airborne can make breathing difficult not to mention make your eyes water for hours.
For beer I use them fresh,whole and only for the last 10 minutes, then fish them out. I get a slight throat warming heat at the back end of the sip. A little of the smoky hab taste as well, but I have not boiled longer than 10.
Just enough for something different

 

And yet here you are. Why?

 

Because I like to read about pepper beers. It's a morbid fascination.

 

We settled on 2 gallons with ~1/2 of a roasted habanero + dry hopped, the other three gallons only dry hopped. There are more in the garden, so we can always add more later on.

 

We bottled last weekend. A half of a roasted habanero (a hot one...they're not all the same) in 2 gallons only had a subtle influence, but it was wonderful. Ill definitely want to do this again. With more habanero.

 

If you want more pepper flavor as you add heat, cut out the seeds and the white part on the inside. I typically add during the primary.

 

Well don't do what I did with my Habanero IPA. I wanted something similar to Habanero Sculpin, heat but not really any pepper flavor.

I decided to go the fresh pepper route, I had read to remove all the seeds and white tissue, then "dry pepper" with it. So I did that, and I wasn't getting any heat, so I kept adding more seeded/deveined habaneros over a period of 14 days, and still no luck. Finally I just chopped up a whole habenero and chucked it in and finally got a small amount of heat, but with all the extra pepper additions (ended up with about 4 habs in 2.5 gallons), now the beer tastes like straight up peppers, lol. I'm hoping that'll go away after a bit, but it being an IPA clearly it's not something I want to age. I know the habs I used were hot as I nibbled a bit and burnt my skin while processing them, don't know why I couldn't get jack shit for heat in my beer though. Next time I'm just using the whole damn pepper, and hopefully will only need 1 of the damn things.

 

I use an Imperial Blonde for the base. I soak dried ghost peppers in vodka for 2 weeks, then strain the peppers and add the vodka on bottling day.