I am trying to work out a recipe for an Imperial Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout, Belgian Milk Chocolate in secondary, Red Pepper flakes in the boil. Wondering what a good amount of Red Pepper flakes would be to give a nice heat in the finish like a chile beer, but not too much. I don't want to use green peppers or jalepenos as I don't want any of the flavors. Maybe Chipotle as the smokiness of the pepper would play nice with the roast and chocolate malts. The ferment is going to be fully temp controlled to keep from hot alcohols, so there won't be any clashing there, but it will be around 9.5% ABV. Thanks for the help.
I would add them to secondary after you get a better idea of what the beer is going to taste like without them.
Don't know...but after drinking Mikkeller's Mexas Ranger, I'm interested! In another note, you probably don't want to add milk chocolate in the beer since it will have butter/fat & emulsifiers added. Stick with unsweetened cocoa and maybe cocoa nibs that you can make a chocolate extract out of.