I'm making a mango habanero beer and wondering which type of beer it should be made with. I am a big cream ale fan, however, with adding heat to it I am unsure of the route I really want to take. I know I do not want to do an IPA nor a Pilsner base with this combo. I could be swayed though. Other ideas? Please reply and explain why if you'd like.
None of the above. Pale Ale SMASH. Neutral yeast (-05, surprise!) pale malt, unobtrusive bittering hop to perhaps 50 IBUs, I say Magnum. One early addition. With Hab and Mango there is plenty going on in that brew. There can only be one or two leading roles in this opera. Otherwise you risk a muddled mess. If you don't have a lot of experience with habanero, understand that a little goes a long way and they vary greatly from pepper to pepper in how much heat they are packing. It can be difficult to achieve a little hab presence, it's usually all or nothing in my experience. That is my two cents. Cheers
What do you mean by Kveik Base? I mostly agree with this, but I'd back a little off on the bittering (probably around 35IBUs), and include some light to medium crystal (20L-40L) to add a touch of sweetness to accentuate the fruit and take a little bit of the burn off. Also would use an English Pale Ale malt instead of US 2-Row.
I think a mango habanero cream ale sounds pretty tasty. Fermented with a kveik strain could be interesting too, if you’re into that kind of thing. Go easy with the habanero, a little bit goes a long way.
Hops that I'm using are Magnum or Warrior for sure. The SMaSH is an interesting take on it, but I'd still use maize to get the creaminess that I like (thus no longer a SMaSH). I'll end up with 5 gallons, so how much habanero should I use to get the heat to be noticed? I plan on adding this after fermentation. I'd cut it up, bake for 15 minutes at 170 degr then dump it into the post ferm for a few days before kegging.
A great way to go about getting the habanero in there would be to make a tincture with some vodka and add then add to taste. I prefer red habaneros. Blanco tequila or white rum might be a bit more keeping with the theme, though.
Tincture is the way to go. You can then add to taste. I think 2 (maybe 3) habaneros would be sufficient. Cut em up and soak in the spirit of your choice. I like to include the seeds, some folks don’t use them. Depends how much heat you want. You can also add them to the boil, but I think you get less flavor this way. You get heat, but not much flavor.
Perhaps you mean something different from what I'm thinking when you say "creaminess," but corn makes a lighter body than malt, not heavier.
Cream Ale is what I decided Maybe serve it with cream cheese and crackers - good one @pants678! @VikeMan, the head is creamier (smaller bubbles - think of guiness's head) and the body "feel" is creamier on the tongue. I am comparing it to the champagne "feel" of a pilsner (bigger bubbles and still fizzing on the tongue). (Does that make sense?) Saying "it feels creamy in my mouth" just has some connotation I don't like to say I ordered the ingredients today (sans the Mango and Habaneros that I can get locally).
First pour: Taste a smidge of mango beyond the cream ale base and the heat from the habanero is subtle (low from what I expected). Tastes delicious nonetheless. Another few weeks under CO2 this should be ready for sharing. After primary ferm finished I added 2 mangos and 2 habaneros. I insta-bulleted em in a small amount of water and added to the primary ferm. Got an extra day's worth of fermentation out of it which was nice to see. Then I let sit for 10 days while slowly dropping the temp down to about 42 degr F. Took it out and let it sit at room temp for a day. kegged each one (I used two different yeasts - Safale 05 in the 5 gallon and Sachet in the 3 gallon) and CO2'd for about a week @ 25#. As I finish typing this the heat from the Habanero is coming through a bit more. Noice!
