After over half a year of not being able to brew (apartment 80°F+), I'm finally getting a freezer and will be able to brew again! I've found a bunch of recipes for a mango habanero APA, but wanted to try this with an ESB. My thought is that the fruitiness of an English yeast will complement the flavors from the extra ingredients. Here's my recipe - thoughts? I haven't brewed an ESB before, but this is what I came up with. Thanks! 3.5 lb Light DME (60 minutes) 3.5 lb Light DME (15 minutes) 1.0 lb Crystal 60 (steep) 1.0 oz Target (11%, 45 minutes) 1.0 oz Challenger (7.5%, flameout) Primary fermentation until it's done or close to it (3-ish days at 65°F) Add the following to primary for 7 days: 7.0 lb frozen, blanched mango 2 habanero peppers, seeded and cut into quarters Bottle and carbonate
What yeast? If the fruitiness is what you're after, why not use citra as the flameout hops, and something more neutral for the bittering addition?
Sorry, forgot to add a few things... Yeast: WLP005 Est. OG: 1.057 Est FG: 1.017 Citra would certainly add fruitiness, but it strikes me as an American hop. I was thinking the yeast character would help with that, which is why I went English style. The description for Challenger noted some fruitiness, which is why I went with that. I figured boiling Target for 45 minutes wouldn't leave behind much character aside from bitterness. I could switch it out. Any suggestion? Thanks!
English yeast esters and mangos and habaneros don't seem to go together. I don't know about those hops, but English style hops are usually more "restrained" than American which makes me think your extras will overwhelm the hops. Have you brewed a beer with mango and habanero before?
I would use only about 1/2 a habanero, unless you like things super hot. As a comparison, I use about 9-10 jalapenos in 5 gallons of my jalapeno porter, which most people consider to be "medium to medium-hot". Habanero is much much stronger so I would personally be afraid of 2 peppers in 5 gallons, as I don't love heat THAT much.
I guess the question should be "Do you want a beer that showcases mango and habanero with some malt, yeast, and hop presence, or do you want an ESB that has some mango and habanero in it?"
I've brewed several variations of a mango habanero beer, but all in the 10%+ abv range. My suggestion is to let your beer ferment out for a couple weeks, then add some metabisulfate, wait a day, then rack onto the fruit. After you give the mango a week or 2, add in habanero a little bit at a time, waiting a couple days between each addition. I use a stainless tea ball tied up with some fishing line. I do this in a keg, so I force carbonate. 1st batch I didn't use metabisulfate, but waited a long time after fermentation before fruiting. 2nd batch I fruited shortly after primary, and had all the mango sweetness ferment out, so had do re-fruit it a few weeks later. Was still awesome, but used over 20lbs of mangos in that batch!
Mango Magnifico was my least favorite beer ever. I would suggest a 1 gallon experimental batch before doing a full 5 gallons
Haven't done a mango and/or chili pepper beer before - thanks for the ideas. So it's looking like habanero is tough to do. I think I'd like an ESB with hints of mango and habanero, and with a little heat. What would be great is the habanero's flavor without intense heat, but it sounds like that's not feasible, at least for an average gravity beer. Maybe switching to jalapenos would be the way to go. Can't say I've done an English beer before either, so I don't know how the flavors will meld. Is it still possible to bottle condition if I add yeast after using the metabisulfate, or will that stuff stick around and kill anything I add after the fact?
Metabisulfite? I wouldn't go there, you should need any of that. Oh wait.... I see now. I guess I could be wrong. But I still don't believe so.
Thanks for the help fellas. I have to put this on hold. My delivery got pushed back; GE must have been having a company wide circle jerk when they should have been building my freezer.
Jalapeños have a more grassy bell pepper flavor, habañero have a more tropical fruit flavor u der all that heat. I would devein the habañeros instead of trading them for the jalapeño. Thats the reason why you always see habañero in a pineapple or mango salsa, they play well.
It really does take a lot of mango for it to present itself in beer unless you find an extract. Also, you really do need English malts to make an ESB, if you're concerned with having a solid ESB as the base.
A mix of the sweetness and the habanero flavor. I acutally like a little heat in some stouts as long as I don't taste the peppers. Really like mexican cake.
