BeerBorg

So back in September I went to the Bell's Wort Giveaway and Homebrew Competition and got five gallons of wort. With it I ended up brewing a porter with Chipotle peppers. Unfortunately it didn't make the finals of the competition but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The smoky pepper flavor and heat were nicely balanced by the malt, cocoa and vanilla. You get the malty sweetness and some smokiness up front with the heat on the back end. There is also some nice chocolate and coffee notes that come through. You can smell the smokiness of the pepper but also some dark chocolate and coffee in the nose and the head is a thin tan, caramel color that dissipates quickly.

This was my first time using peppers in a brew and I was surprised by how easy it was and how well it turned out.
Brewed on 9/14/2018
OG 1.065
FG 1.012
ABV = 7.0%
Bottled and checked FG 10/7/2018

• 5 gal of Bell's wort (SP 1.060)
  
  2.5 lbs Crystal 60L
  
  1.0 lbs Brown Malt
  
  0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
  
  3 oz Hershey cocoa powder
  
  0.5 oz Magnum hops (60 min boil)
  
  0.25 oz Mt. Hood hops (20 min boil)
  
  1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min boil)
  
  0.75 oz Mt. Hood hops (flame out)
  
  6 liters spring water (To top off to 5 gallons)

Pitched 1 pkg of Imperial Darkness A10 yeast at 75*F

Primary fermentation = 16 days

Secondary for 7 days
5 units dried Chipotle peppers, chopped
2 units vanilla bean, sliced and chopped

Peppers and vanilla boiled in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes and cooled before added to secondary

I remember hearing about that competition a few years ago - sounds like fun and I'm glad you ended up with something unique that you like to drink.
Cool glass, too!

Looks like a nice one. And so does the bottle opener!

Very cool, glad you enjoy your beer.

The title of this thread reminds me of this old school jam:

I've read that you get more of the heat and flavor from peppers if you soak them in something alcoholic (like vodka) or vinegar (which you wouldn't want to do for a beer). than from water. This may not be true, but for jalapeno beers I've done, I've generally thrown a few into the boil and soaked some in vodka for a few days and added them as "dry hop" type additions. My nephew, who used to brew a lot of really good jalapeno brews would add the jalapenos and use the vodka for making a hot bloody mary. But I toss the vodka in, as well.

bpgreen wrote:I've read that you get more of the heat and flavor from peppers if you soak them in something alcoholic (like vodka) or vinegar (which you wouldn't want to do for a beer). than from water. This may not be true, but for jalapeno beers I've done, I've generally thrown a few into the boil and soaked some in vodka for a few days and added them as "dry hop" type additions. My nephew, who used to brew a lot of really good jalapeno brews would add the jalapenos and use the vodka for making a hot bloody mary. But I toss the vodka in, as well.

That's also what I read online in my research, soaking in vodka or other spirit is how most homebrewers do it, however commercial breweries can't use distilled spirits in their products. Since I was brewing a recipe that potentially could be brewed commercially I decided to boil the peppers and vanilla in water.