Chilli Beer - Recipe Ideas Sought

[thedragon]

Fellow brewers,

I've recently been introduced to home brewing by friends and am now looking to get a little adventurous (well for me anyway) after increasing success with a number of K&K brews.

I love beer and I love chilli - I'd like it more if I could enjoy both at the same time. I'm thinking of adding a few chillis to my next batch, but I'm unsure if there is a special technique that I should follow such a finely chopping them or boiling them and adding the water. Do any of the more experience brewers out there have any recipe ideas for chilli beer?

Any ideas or a prod in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Happy brewing, and happier drinking!

Daniel

 

[milestron]

I love my chillis but personally all the chilli beers I've tasted and tried to like have been a bit of a fail (commercial ones), but they probably use chilli extract hence the rankness. I think the best one I had was pretty mild on the beer side ie a corona style (which otherwise I'm not really a fan of). I guess you could boil up some fresh chillis to kill the bugs and then chuck in fermentor with the other bits. There's probably some recipes on AHB if you have no luck also try thehotpepper.com - they are to chillis what this place is to beer. As for type of chillis probably depends on preference but I'd probably bet that if you go for something chronic like habaneros (could be interesting flavour?) then use sparingly.

 

[Lodan]

You could whip up a normal k&k batch and add some chilli powder to a few of the bottles when priming. You get a bit of the experiment done without potentially creating a monster batch!

 

[thedragon]

Gents, thank you for the ideas. When bottling the next batch I'll try combinations of adding varying quantities boiled chillis and chilli powder to individual bottles to see how it turns out without killing a whole batch. I appreciate your advice!

 

[warb]

nice one, lsat time i did this, was a few years back, I grabbed some small chillies, chopped of the top and stuck them in the bottles prior to bottling (this was back before i used kegs) came up a treat.. just one thing i can add, dont pick yer nose after the exercise ..

 

[Aaron86]

My dad made a chilli porter, which easily has been his best brew yet, incredible to be honest. I know he boiled the chillies for a while but didnt dump them in the tub, just the water. Really did give it a noticable kick and flavour, without being ridiculous. I will find out the exact recipe.

IF you are in need of some chillies I can donate you some Jolokia, but beware :kooi:

 

[Dragon slayer]

The Dragon,

you have inspired me, I have raided the freezer for some home-grown chillies off last years plants. I was a little concerned that my batch was going to be a little dull as it was a plain old coopers draught but hopefully these chillies will do the trick. I just popped them in the bottle at bottling time. Some i pricked with a pin, some I cut in half and quarters, some I left whole. We'll see how it goes.
Ps, you are the Dragon, I am the Dragon Slayer
so pop around and have some chilli beer, and I will slay you. :lol:

 

[fasty73]

I boiled some chillis for 10 minutes and added to fermenter a few weeks ago, smells great but got another week before I bottle and then another month before I try it. I cut the chillis up into small bits.

 

[thedragon]

I boiled some chillis for 10 minutes and added to fermenter a few weeks ago, smells great but got another week before I bottle and then another month before I try it. I cut the chillis up into small bits.

Fasty, let us know how it goes. Your method sounds quite reasonable, however the challenge is how much chilli to put in. I'd love to hear how your brew goes.

 

[thedragon]

The Dragon,

you have inspired me, I have raided the freezer for some home-grown chillies off last years plants. I was a little concerned that my batch was going to be a little dull as it was a plain old coopers draught but hopefully these chillies will do the trick. I just popped them in the bottle at bottling time. Some i pricked with a pin, some I cut in half and quarters, some I left whole. We'll see how it goes.
Ps, you are the Dragon, I am the Dragon Slayer
so pop around and have some chilli beer, and I will slay you. :lol:

Please let me know when the brew is ready and the big fish and I will pop over for a sample...

Ps, The only thing that can slay this dragon is a serving of that crappy lemonade that you forced all to drink a little while ago :icon_drool2: . Play to your strengths and keep the scrumpy cider coming. :chug:

 

[legham]

Hi, I secondary fermented one Thai Birds Eye chilli per L in a Little Creatures Biright Ale clone. Apart from tasting a little like the Chillis ( vegitable taste ) it was a great heat. Net time ill use a Prik Key Nu which has less vegitable flavour and more heat.

I think Ill be experimenting with chillis for quite a while to get the heat and taste just right.

 

[fasty73]

My batch is ready to go into bottles. Will be bottling in a couple of days.

 

[thedragon]

Hi, I secondary fermented one Thai Birds Eye chilli per L in a Little Creatures Biright Ale clone. Apart from tasting a little like the Chillis ( vegitable taste ) it was a great heat. Net time ill use a Prik Key Nu which has less vegitable flavour and more heat.

I think Ill be experimenting with chillis for quite a while to get the heat and taste just right.

You are right about the vegetable taste Legham.... tried some of the dragon slayer's chilli brew earlier today which was made by secondary fermenting 1/2 a hot chilli per bottle. The batch had 6 weeks bottle conditioning. While the beer had a hint of heat, similar to yours a vegetable taste was evident. It was drinkable, but not something that one would brew again. I think that I'll follow Lodan's advice and introduce a little chilli powder at the time of secondary fermentation to see if it is possible to achieve the heat while avoiding the unwanted vegetable taste.

 

[thedragon]

I have raided the freezer for some home-grown chillies off last years plants. I was a little concerned that my batch was going to be a little dull as it was a plain old coopers draught but hopefully these chillies will do the trick. I just popped them in the bottle at bottling time. Some i pricked with a pin, some I cut in half and quarters, some I left whole. We'll see how it goes.
Ps, you are the Dragon, I am the Dragon Slayer
so pop around and have some chilli beer, and I will slay you. :lol:

The dragonslayer and I revisited his chilli beer at the weekend after it had been given the oppotuinity of 3 months secondary fernantation. While it hurts me to say, I have to admit that it packed a little punch and was quite refreshing. The vegetable taste had also disappeared. It is not something that I could drink 6 bottles of in one sitting, however it was nice to introduce one or two in to the Sunday afternoon drinking session in between bottles of a more traditional IPA.

For anyone out there thinking of brewing chilli beer I can recommend the approach taken by the dragonslayer, but consider limiting the chilli infusion to half your batch as it may take you a while to get through 23 litres. Cheers! :icon_cheers:

 

[Gormand]

To reduce the vegetable taste could you just crush/blend the seeds of the chillis? I imagine that the vegetable taste would come mostly from the flesh and I know that a lot of heat comes from the seeds.

 

[Grott]

Hi all, I've have great success using Coopers Cerveza or draught as a base. Boil 6 hot chilli (I use scotch bonnet) cut in half in 250 ml of water for 20 min, allow to rest for 10 min. Pour liquid through a fine kitchen strainer into your brew prior to adding the yeast. Brew as normal. Nice drop with a pleasant warmth to the back of the throat. Great with BBQ.
cheers grott. Ps. Use hot chilli!!

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Chop some chillis up, ones that you really like the flavour of. A bunch of em.

Now stick em in a jar and cover them up with a nice flavourless vodka. Do your brew. Move forward in time a couple of weeks till when your brew is done.

Take a few bottles of a similar brew you have done in the past, an eyedropper, the jar of chilli essence you have now made and a 100ml glass. Do some taste testing. Work out how much chilli tastes good.

Now add some chilli essence to your bottles for the next brew and bottle....

Unless you guzzle your beer spectacularly fast - make some bottles with a bit less than you thought was right, some at the "right" level and some with a bit more. Then you can see how the flavour and heat holds up as the beer ages. Every week, try one of the low, one of the medium and one of the high level beers... When you work out what the sweet spot is - you can dial your next brew right in. You'll still have to do the initial tast testing, but you will know whether to aim high or low of your initial impression.

If you are willing to do some "research drinking" then if you make the essence up before you brew the beer, you can have a few sessions working out what sort of beers you think the chilli flavour goes best in. Just go to your brew stash, or the vottle shop, craxk some beers and dose in some chilli. Only do a few beers at a time though, your palate will be fried after a few.