Fear the Chipotle Beer!
I bottled two brews this weekend:
First, the Chipotle IPA. This 7.7% ABV IPA is light bodied with a coppery hue. The base beer (pre-Chipotles) was pretty bland, on the whole...not a lot going on in it, but it was OK. Fast-forward to this weekend, and I've bottled the whole thing, mostly in 12oz and pint bottles. Believe me, you will not be craving more than 12oz of this unless you are crazier than me. It is HOT. First sip, for a second I was like, oh, OK, and then within a second, BAM it hits you and you're gasping for air. Drinkable? Yes, of course...I'm not an insane heat person. But it is hot. I will have plenty of this on hand since I bottled it in small bottles so if you are ready to take the plunge into serious chili beer, let me know and I will hook you up. This is a fiery SOB...I may make a lot of beer chili with it. But if you are ready to have some burn with your beer, as I said, let me know.
Secondly and much more sedately, my blackcurrant cider. As a refresher, this is basically a very simple recipe. I fermented a base cider of 4 gallons apple juice and 2 lbs brown sugar using my favorite British ale yeast (S-04). Then I racked that onto 1 gallon of Trader Joe's 100% Blackcurrant Juice. It is a rich purple-black in colour, and it is surprisingly sweet and light in ABV...a final gravity of 1.013 and an ABV content of only 6%. Very appealing, on the whole; quite drinkable and won't devastate you after a pint or two. I may give a pure apple cider experiment another shot, especially bearing this in mind. I put this into the 2-liter growler, so hopefully it will be quite a hit at the next St. Crispin's dinner. For which I'm unsure of the best sort of food...I've thought about Mexican food, Danish food, or a return to British cuisine. Any comments, let me know. Cheers!
First, the Chipotle IPA. This 7.7% ABV IPA is light bodied with a coppery hue. The base beer (pre-Chipotles) was pretty bland, on the whole...not a lot going on in it, but it was OK. Fast-forward to this weekend, and I've bottled the whole thing, mostly in 12oz and pint bottles. Believe me, you will not be craving more than 12oz of this unless you are crazier than me. It is HOT. First sip, for a second I was like, oh, OK, and then within a second, BAM it hits you and you're gasping for air. Drinkable? Yes, of course...I'm not an insane heat person. But it is hot. I will have plenty of this on hand since I bottled it in small bottles so if you are ready to take the plunge into serious chili beer, let me know and I will hook you up. This is a fiery SOB...I may make a lot of beer chili with it. But if you are ready to have some burn with your beer, as I said, let me know.
Secondly and much more sedately, my blackcurrant cider. As a refresher, this is basically a very simple recipe. I fermented a base cider of 4 gallons apple juice and 2 lbs brown sugar using my favorite British ale yeast (S-04). Then I racked that onto 1 gallon of Trader Joe's 100% Blackcurrant Juice. It is a rich purple-black in colour, and it is surprisingly sweet and light in ABV...a final gravity of 1.013 and an ABV content of only 6%. Very appealing, on the whole; quite drinkable and won't devastate you after a pint or two. I may give a pure apple cider experiment another shot, especially bearing this in mind. I put this into the 2-liter growler, so hopefully it will be quite a hit at the next St. Crispin's dinner. For which I'm unsure of the best sort of food...I've thought about Mexican food, Danish food, or a return to British cuisine. Any comments, let me know. Cheers!
posted by SQLFunkateer at 9:46 AM
3 Comments:
Hi,I found this @ the NB forum. I've been looking for a good chilli beer recipe. I thought crazy ed's was pretty good.Would you please e-mail me the recipe.
goldy2@frontiernet.net
Thanks
I was just thinking about trying to brew a chipotle IPA. Any chance you could post your recipe to give me something to work off?
tbl,
I'll try and remember to send it to you. But it was not necessarily the best beer ever. I still have several bottles of it. Way, way, way too hot, like make you gag a bit after each sip, and then you want to take a drink to cool your throat, and you sip the beer, and the process continues recursively!
Basically, and this is from memory, it was probably 12lbs of US pale malt, and some sort of very pale crystal malt like crystal 10, and 1/2lb to 1lb of flaked wheat. May have had a bit of cane sugar, too, like 1lb. 3oz of Summit hops, but sadly I don't recall the hopping schedule. Could have been 1oz full wort hopping, 1oz 60 min, and 1oz aroma (end of boil). Then US56 for the yeast. Take 20 dried chipotles and soak them in vodka for a couple weeks. Add the chipotles and vodka to the beer after it has fermented out completely, and bottle after a week or so.
If yours comes out anything like mine, it will be...not very good, and way too hot. My vote, pass on this, find another good recipe. Mine was way too dry without much malt flavor...you need some sweetness to balance out the peppers. And Summit hops, I'd take a pass on them too, although good luck finding them anyway with the shortage!
I'd chalk this one up as a failed experiment, although it was fun to give this away to friends. "Here, try this pale ale..." Hehehe.
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