How many chilis?

I brewed Denny Conn’s Imperial porter recipe just the other day (The one of Bourbon Vanilla and 90+ page Northern Brewer Forum Fame), and now I need to be thinking about what I am going to do with 10 gallons of it.

I was thinking of treating 5 gal with a "Mexican" mixture of things, a la Cigar City Hunahpu’s. For this, brown sugar, cinnamon, cocoa nibs, and some amount of dried ancho chili pepper. I have ballpark figures on the other ingredient amounts, but I really in the dark as to what other people may have used to get just a touch of heat in a beer. Really NOT looking for mouth destroying, Ring of Fire inducing heat here, just something to complement the other flavors.

Any ideas?

Thanks

2-3 chilis destemmed. Should be good for that.

Hydrate just so lightly with neutral spirit (like vodka) to kill off any unwanted bacteria. Do not let them just soak in a jar of spirits, cover them just enough to hydrate the peppers. Put three in a hop bag, let them soak for about a week in the secondary. After three days thief a taste to see how it is doing, if coming on too strong, pull the bag. Remember the majority of pepper flavor will transfer within the first couple of days. This is what a home brew friend did with his and it came out just tasty.

Oh are they charred? If not, maybe after hydrating them you may want to throw them briefly on a grill or stove to add some nice char that would work with a porter.

Originally posted by BBB63
Hydrate just so lightly with neutral spirit (like vodka) to kill off any unwanted bacteria. Do not let them just soak in a jar of spirits, cover them just enough to hydrate the peppers. Put three in a hop bag, let them soak for about a week in the secondary. After three days thief a taste to see how it is doing, if coming on too strong, pull the bag. Remember the majority of pepper flavor will transfer within the first couple of days. This is what a home brew friend did with his and it came out just tasty.

Oh are they charred? If not, maybe after hydrating them you may want to throw them briefly on a grill or stove to add some nice char that would work with a porter.

Just so you’re aware, Ancho is a fairly mild pepper in beer. I’d probably 8-10 in all honesty. Either that or consider a mix of ancho, pasilla & guajillo peppers. But Ancho generally is the easiest to use. Guajillo is pretty earthy, pasilla is similar to ancho. You’re not going to get any sort of palate destroying heat from any of these peppers, though.

I’ve seen individual anchos range in size from 20 grams to 50 grams … like all things of variable density (DME, flour, &c.) you need to measure in terms of weight. Peppers are also variable in terms of their heat, but this is really hard to account for, and the range is good.

Another approach vs. "dry peppering" is to create a tincture of the pepper by soaking in vodka for a few days, then dosing the carboy/keg/bottles to taste with the strained tincture only. This will allow you to dial-in the amount you’re happy with to a measured quantity (milliliters of tincture to, say, a 500ml sample of the beer), then scale up to the full batch volume when you’re happy.

I’ve had success with 30g dried ancho in 2.5gl of oatmeal stout secondary for a week and the equivalent of 28g/5gl dried ancho with the "tincture bottle dosing" on a witbier .. both quite excellent combos. Looking forward to trying the same with a dubble shortly, too. :)

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
Just so you’re aware, Ancho is a fairly mild pepper in beer. I’d probably 8-10 in all honesty. Either that or consider a mix of ancho, pasilla & guajillo peppers. But Ancho generally is the easiest to use. Guajillo is pretty earthy, pasilla is similar to ancho. You’re not going to get any sort of palate destroying heat from any of these peppers, though.

Originally posted by CLevar

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
Just so you’re aware, Ancho is a fairly mild pepper in beer. I’d probably 8-10 in all honesty. Either that or consider a mix of ancho, pasilla & guajillo peppers. But Ancho generally is the easiest to use. Guajillo is pretty earthy, pasilla is similar to ancho. You’re not going to get any sort of palate destroying heat from any of these peppers, though.

My tongue in cheek remark was more to head off someone saying "Why the hell do you want peppers in beer, f*** you"

I know that they won’t make anything overly hot....If I wanted that, I would just toss in a dried Bhut and call it done.

Originally posted by MatSciGuy

Originally posted by CLevar

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
Just so you’re aware, Ancho is a fairly mild pepper in beer. I’d probably 8-10 in all honesty. Either that or consider a mix of ancho, pasilla & guajillo peppers. But Ancho generally is the easiest to use. Guajillo is pretty earthy, pasilla is similar to ancho. You’re not going to get any sort of palate destroying heat from any of these peppers, though.

My tongue in cheek remark was more to head off someone saying "Why the hell do you want peppers in beer, f*** you"

I know that they won’t make anything overly hot....If I wanted that, I would just toss in a dried Bhut and call it done.

Do it! Do it! Do it!

I made an imperial robust porter and added 14 dried chipotle peppers to the boil. I kept them in a hop bag and pulled the bag out of the boil when the wort was spicy enough. Probably about half an hour or so?

Initially, I thought that it was a bit too spicy, but the ferment (or a bit of aging?) drove off some of the heat, so it ended up just about right.

I also added a couple of pounds of rauchmalz, because I thought the peppers wouldn’t be smoky enough on their own to really deliver the full chipotle taste. I was right.