Jalapeno white ipa

Fresh jalapeño in a tincture may work. You can dose as needed thwn.

 

Have you packaged your beer?

As for which pepper to use, I have no opinion because I'm not a lover of pepper in beer. Whichever is easiest for you to purchase.

 

The beer you are going for is not in my wheelhouse, so I have no advice other than taste it to evaluate where it is currently and whether it needs to change. If I made a pineapple-orange white IPA that I liked, I probably wouldn't change a thing. If I didn't like it, I would probably toss it. If it was in the middle ground, showing promise, but not where it needs to be, I might ask "what else does it need?" I cannot imagine answering that question with peppers. Like I said, not my wheelhouse. But if you taste it, it may speak to you about peppers.

BTW, I wonder if this is the beer you referenced.

 

Scotch bonnets or habaneros are my favorite peppers flavor wise I’ve had good luck seeding and chopping 1 or 2 into the fermenter a few days before kegging. It’s always a gamble though. You could ruin a whole batch pretty easy. Whatever you do don’t use reapers

 

Also a fan off Habs and jalapeños, but,,,,, the above advice should be noted. I have killed several 5 gallon batches with either pepper by using toooo much.

 

I've never used too much, with jalapenos anyway. If using habanero or ghost or something crazy, I would remove all the seeds and only use 1/4 or 1/2 in 5-6 gallons.

 

It's easy to get too much heat in anything...drinks, stews, desserts, eyes (OUCH ! !). Mitigating excessive contributions is a challenge.

Seems to me it's a crap-shoot adding fresh peppers (whole or chopped and seeded, or otherwise) to a beer if only for the reason that pepper heat intensity can vary from plant to plant and even between peppers form the same bush. If I wanted to add pepper heat to beer I'd probably take the tincture route at bottling......that's not to say others haven't hit their mark with fresh, but more to say that the chances of it being consistently repeatable is more likely with a tincture.

Something I don't know for sure is whether pepper heat/flavor tends to lessen over time after bottling. My instincts tell me it does not auto-subdue.

 

No, it doesn't mellow out.

 

My best effort was 2 whole Habs tossed in the last 10 l
Minutes of the boil, then fished out and discarded. The smoky hab taste was there, just a little, but it was super. Beer was a imperial black with blueberries.

 

5-gallon batch?
Were the habaneros smoked, or was it that you perceived a "smokey" flavor from regular, fresh habaneros?

 

I am no brewer - home, professional or otherwise - but I know what I like and this sounds amazing.

 

Depends on what you are looking for, if you want the peppers fruit to come thru, jalapeno is best bet, don't want the heat, devein and deseed it. If you want the heat no fruit, go with a habanero/scotch bonnet that has thinner skin. If you want a mix of heat/vegetal flavor you can control the heat by cutting the pepper(s) in half and removing the veins and seeds from one side.
Also if you are going to do dark beers and would like some smoke brought into the equation, look at chipotle and ancho dried peppers. chipotle bringing lots of heat and smoke to the party and ancho bringing a mild heat and earthiness with a touch of smoke.

 

I'd go with the tincture method, for the reasons @riptorn mentioned above. I'd use Scotch Bonnets and a high-proof rum for it, as it would fit well with the rest of the recipe.

Scotch bonnets tend to be used in my favorite hot sauces (caribbean style), they have a great fruitiness to them, even more-so than habaneros, which is why I voted for them. Jalapenos have more of a vegetal/herbal flavor, which wouldn't necessarily jive with what you're going for.

That being said, how experienced with homebrewing are you? There's a lot going on here, and it will be tough to balance it out. Be prepared for it to be a bit muddled, and maybe a bit tough to swallow (figuratively and literally)

 

The Habs I grow give heat and a smokey taste which I find very attractive. They were fresh picked.

I should also say I poked a hole in both of them before tossing in.

Other brews which were crap were Habs or jalaps cut in half and either boiled for 10 or into the secondary. For me, burning hot, overwhelming just killed any fun for drinking.

Go with low amounts to start, you can aways up the peppers for the next batch.

 

I'd have to agree here....and while I would not want to deter any brewer of chasing something they really want in their beer, you may find the fruity, sweet, bitter additions you've already pulled off with the IPA will contrast abhorrently with pepper/heat. I would recommend, up to you of course, splitting a pale ale over a few smaller fermenters and dosing in different ways to see what works best before going the full monty on the pepper addition. But hey, if not, I'd love to hear how it turns out!

 

I have to agree not to go with jalapeños for what you're after. Maybe if you can find some ripe, red ones. I don't think the green pepper flavor is what you want. Any red pepper will have a fruiter, berry-like flavor than green. (They are technically berries, after all.) From your list, I would probably go with Scotch Bonnet because of the relatively milder heat. Superhot peppers like Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers have an amazing aroma and flavor if you can handle the heat. I think they're something like 3-7 hotter than a habanero or Scotch Bonnet. If you use one, I'd remove the seeds and membrane. WEAR GLOVES! I use half of one in a big batch of soup and it makes something that most people would consider way too spicy to eat, so you may not even want to use a whole pepper.

Caveat emptor.

 

The heat of most hot peppers is okay by me when not trying to go off the deep end with them, but I really like the flavor of habanero. So much so that a couple years ago I grew some Zavory peppers, which have a heat level of low to nil (about 100 Scoville units) and have the flavor of habanero! (they really do, too)
That might work for some folks when they nail their heat level and want some additional pepper flavor.