Pepper Porter advice

Given those two options, I'd go for dried chipotle's personally. The flavor of habanero peppers is so different that I don't think it would make a good substitute.

 

Just for clarity, you know that chipotles are smoked dried jalapenos, right? You can't buy "fresh" chipotles, they are either dried or in a can with adobo.

 

Do you have an actual recipe you are following? Or you thought that a chipotle porter sounded good?

I have never added peppers to a beer, but I think you could go with your idea of a little vodka and the dried peppers to the fermenter.

a little background on chipotles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipotle

 

I usually soak my peppers in neutral spirit for 5-7 days and then add the neutral spirit to the keg. If you are just looking to sanitize, then yes I'd recommend a quick soak in vodka.

 

Depending how hot you'd want it the seeds are the hottest part. I've never made a tincture before but maybe you could try that if you were worried about just adding the solid peppers

 

I use ancho chilis I buy on Amazon. Great smokey flavor!

 

I don't usually like pepper in my beers, but I do like smoked porters. Please let us know how this turns out.

 

I make an Imperial Porter about every year that I dose with a tincture made from bourbon, dried chilis, and sweet spices to give it a mole effect. I like going the tincture method because I don't have to check it and then bottle/transfer at any given time, I just add the tincture to taste at bottling, which happens on my schedule, not the beer's.

 

I picked habeneros and jalepenos from my garden last year, cut them up, put them in a large mason jar, and filled it with bourbon. It is extremely spicy - if I want any of my beers to have a little kick I just add directly to the keg until the flavor is right. I currently have an Imperial Stout with vanilla, cacao nibs, cinnamon, and peppers on tap and man is it good. All the flavors were tinctures I made in mason jars separately by soaking each ingredient in bourbon. I then added them directly to the kegs until I had the flavor I liked.

The pepper/bourbon tincture makes a mean Bloody Mary too, if you prefer bourbon to vodka.

Cheers!

 

As I mentioned above, I don't really like peppers in my beer. But, I really like bourbon and a RIS with bourbon/peppers sounds pretty damn delicious

I grow peppers every year for hot sauce, I think I need to dump some in some bourbon. How long do you leave the peppers? What fraction peppers to bourbon? How much bourbon? Ballpark amount of peppered bourbon that you added for 5 gallons?

 

No problem

6.0 oz Bourbon
1.0 each vanilla beans
0.125 oz Cinnamon Sticks
0.0625 oz Dried Chipotle
0.125 oz Ancho Chili
0.25 each Anise, Whole Stars
0.063 oz Chili, Guajillo


The chilis had the seeds taken out. I seem to remember tossing a couple of allspice berries, and maybe a clove, in there as well, so I may not have written it down. If you like allspice and/or clove, add it I guess. The weights seem very low, but dried chilis are very light. Just toss it all in a mason jar and forget about it for a month or so.