Chilli Kick

[Richard]

Decided to make a chilli beer, because I have a bunch of other beers already on the go at the moment...
Some of my favourite chilli sauces tend to lean towards a rich, fruity flavour (right before the capsaicin rips your face off). I've had a couple of other chilli beers now, and they tend to miss this flavour. I'm also of the impression that they're not exactly potent. To fix this, I turn to various degrees of holy-shit-that-burns chilli saucery, an arsenal of which I have in my kitchen cupboards. To my knowledge, capsaicin is not soluble in water, but is in alcohol - hence the higher percentage of this beer. The base beer is crafted to showcase the chilli flavour - I don't think it fits particularly well into any category.

This beer will be darker due to the carafa special, chosen for the cofee-chocolate overtones, which I think will meld with the heat beautifully.

13lbs 2-Row.
3lbs Wheat Malt.
1lb Caramunich-III.
2oz Carafa Special I.
2oz Carafa Special II.
2oz Carafa Special III.
2oz Roast Barley.

1oz Magnum @ 60

S-04 (Fruity esters in this would be a bonus).

1tsp Gypsum split between mash & sparge water 50:50.

Mash 4 gallons @ 156; sparge 5 gallons @ 168.

Mix in sauce-pan, boil, cool, add to beer in carboy (you do not want this hanging around on all your brew-gear):

1 cup water.
8tsp Green (Jalapeno) Tabasco.
4tsp Some Random Habanero Hot-Sauce My Mother In Law Found In Jamaica.
1tsp Giv-er hot-sauce.
1tsp Dave's 2008 Vintage Ghost (Naga Jolokia) Chilli Sauce.

All of these sauces were selected because they do not feature garlic, onion, etc - just chillis and fruit.

[Chris Craig]

I'm curious to see how this turns out.

[fakr]

That sounds crazy Richard!  Spicy beer?  Makes me want to try it now!

I have some "Da-Bomb" that comes in at 325,000 scoville....that would make a spicy brew!

[Richard]

"Dave's Private Reserve which comes in a coffin-shaped package and has been reported variously as from 500,000 to 750,000 Scoville units."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave's_Gourmet

[Kyle]

wow...

[HappyHax0r]

I.can attest, that naga jolokia sauce is hot as $&$$@!!!#!

[Richard]

Envelope calculation: assuming the tabasco & jamaican stuff doesn't count, and that the Giv-er is about half the scoville-rating of the SR, that's about 1tsp @ 300,000 SHU. Six gallons would be 4608 teaspoons... so the resulting heat will not be even remotely face-melting territory... about 65 SHU. Tabasco sauce for reference is about 2500 SHU...

... on this evidence, I'm doubling the chilli sauce additions, and quadrupling the SR. Recipe modified to reflect.

This would then put it at about 2tsp @ 350,000 SHU, so about 150 SHU in six gallons. The weakest (green) tabasco sauce is approximately 600SHU, so methinks this will be a nice heat, without upsetting the more sensive palates

[jamie_savoie]

are you going to "dry hop" with whole peppers? lol

[fakr]

are you going to "dry hop" with whole peppers? lol

hahahahahahah!!!

[Kyle]

maybe throw in some garlic too.

I have a label suggestion:
[attachment=0:1nuzfofu]beer gas.jpg[/attachment:1nuzfofu]

[Richard]

I won't be dry-hopping with peppers (sanitation concerns, plus the sauces were already very rich in that flavour), but I was considering some kinda tropical fruit addition... guava/mango/passionfruit.

Hmm. I wonder if a simcoe/palisade dry-hop would give that mango-flavour/aroma...

[jeffsmith]

If you can get your hands on it, Galaxy would be a great dry hop for that flavour/aroma.

[Richard]

Had good experience with just Simcoe/Palisade = Mango, but i'm not sure if that was generated in the kettle or from the dry-hop... I've heard good things about Galaxy, and I guess Calypso would be good too.

[HappyHax0r]

maybe throw in some garlic too.

I have a label suggestion:
[attachment=0:4orxcs4s]beer gas.jpg[/attachment:4orxcs4s]

Ugh, garlic in a pepper stout? That sounds atrocious.

[Richard]

Yeah I assumed he was joking

I deliberately avoided the sauces with more "savoury" flavours.