Gonna do my first Jalapeno beer, have some questions

[jpsherman]

My mom had a bumper crop of jalapenos and got me to take home 40-50 peppers, and my bro got the same amount!

So I am thinking about doing a simple clean ale, probably using S-05 yeast.

I want the peppers to shine so I would like to know what hops would not conflict with or overpower the peppers. I am shooting for a low IBU here, like 15-20ish.

Probably going to do light extract with a CaraPils steep. This will be a LBK batch.

I am planning on cutting the peppers in half and deseeding them, soaking in vodka, and adding after high krausen.

Perhaps adding a bit of pepper at bottling.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas or advice to tweak this recipe.

How many jalapenos would you use?
Which hops?
Anybody have a formula for how adding vodka bumps the ABV?

[mashani]

Personally, I'd just brew a cerveza type of beer, IE a simple Mexican lager or something like a cream ale with some flaked maize and a clean ale yeast, using German hops like Tettnang as the bittering addition, and little or no other hops at all for flavor/aroma. Keep the IBUs low. Let the peppers shine as the flavor/aroma.

[Brewbirds]

I've seen "chili" beers mentioned but not done one; first thing that came to mind was if you should use an LBK or find a small food grade bucket to ferment in.

I just wonder if the capsicupm (sp?) will not be removable from plastic.

That being said you may want to consider smoking the peppers for little added depth to the flavor, i.e. a little smoke and a little malliard so they don't come off as vegital used raw.

All that being said I'm interested in what you are anticipating flavor wise as you design the recipe.

Like Mashani says a logical conclusion is looking for a cervesa style beer and a mild hop but a citrusy hop that leans towards lime/lemon might add a bit of zing.

Sounds like a fun project as long as you don't put your fingers near your eyes.

KUPP (keep us posted please)

[jpsherman]

I've got 4 jalapenos steeping in vodka right now. Might brew this up on Friday, if I have the time.

German hops sound good, I will plan on the bittering charge only.

[truckndad]

I did a jalapeno ale a couple years back. Ass Burner Ale, burns as much on the way out as it did on the way in. I just did a simple Mexican Cervaca style in the LBK. Three peppers, two seeded, one un-seeded. Added them on week two. Bottled at the end of week three. It was hot. I should've seeded that third pepper. But I had the flavor I wanted. The peppers out did the hops (tettanger). I just added lime at drinking time and that helped mellow it out a bit.

[FrozenInTime]

I made a simple ale, not much hops/flavor. When I bottled them, I sliced the peppers in half, removed the seeds and put a half pepper in each bottle. At first, there was little flavor. After 'bout 2 months, they started to taste nice, not hot but could taste the peppers. After 'bout 4 months and later, the brewskis started to kick up the heat, the last few was pretty warm to say the least. Oh, for the tasteless beer, I used Mr Beers American Ale, bout as bland as they come but worked great for above beer.

I had a bumper crop of jalepeno's meself this year. They went fast! Remove the stem, core out the pepper without breaking it open. Stuff bottom half with room temp cream cheese. Fry up some of your favorite Jimmy Dean Sausage, but leave a little pink, fill rest of peppers to top. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Whilst oven is heating, wrap each pepper/cheese/sausage with a single slice of bacon. Bake for 30 minutes or so, watch the bacon. Don't burn it, cook until crisp. I use pepper trays and they sit close to each other, I bake for an hour. Just laid on a tray, takes bout 30 minutes. Eat these with your favorite beer, it will go over sooooo much better than putting them in the beer. IMHO

[The_Professor]

I've done a couple of jalapeno beers. The first one was too hot but you could have it with dinner and a bite of your food to cool it down, usually it is the other way around.

The second one was a Rauchbier. All grain with 50% smoked malt. I thought the jalapeno heat and flavor were about right but most people thought it was too smokey.

First one was an ale, second one was a lager. You can control flavor and heat by leaving veins and seeds in some slices and not in others.

I added mine at the start of fermentation but adding the peppers to secondary might be a better idea.

Here is how the local brewery does it:

[Gymrat]

When I did mine I cut the veins and seeds out, chopped them up, put them in a hop sack, and tossed them in my kettle the last 15 minutes of the boil. The flavor came out absolutely perfect. If you are just using a bittering addition of hops there will be no conflict no matter what hop you use.

[D_Rabbit]

I have very little to add to this except that a start up brewery here has a Jalapeno/Bacon beer that is TO DIE FOR!! The beer seems to be a medium bodies beer which holds up to both the Jalapeno and the bacon well with a nice smoked malt flavor at the back end.

[RickBeer]

Haven't tried Jalapeno beer, but definitely have done the cream cheese filling that FIT mentions (although not nearly as delicious sounding as his). They are great with beer.

Ass Burner ale, burning both ways, sounds like something I wouldn't want to try. OUCH!

[mashani]

Hmmm bacon... this would probably be good with it then:

http://morebeer.com/products/cascade-be ... bacon.html

[jpsherman]

I ended up doing a MrB Cervesa + Pale LME pouch.

[FedoraDave]

That was probably your best bet.

For future batches, I'd do as Mashani suggests and make a light cerveza-type beer using Tettnang or Hallertau.

I made a jalapeno beer early on, and it came out fine, but it wasn't really something I was interested in keeping in the pipeline. But keeping things simple is the way to go in these cases, IMO. Adjusting the amount of peppers you use in future batches is the only fine-tuning I can see being needed.

[jpsherman]

I would say that 4 peppers was the correct amount. Bottled it today and it had a nice kick to it, but not too strong. I would say I could drink one beer without being in pain, but I probably wouldn't drink more than one at a time. The aroma is awesome! I'm kinda excited to cook with this beer also. Should be a good addition to any chili or cheese sauce.