Genius Time: Curried India Pale Ale

Anyone come up with this idea before? It seems so obvious but I've never heard of one. How could we do this?

Shoot for something full-bodied, 45-50 IBUs with earthy hops, biscuity British malts, some victory malt and roasted rice for nuttiness, and a low attenuating spicy Belgian ale yeast like WLP565 or WLP410. Or you could go a little more traditional and use Burton ale yeast at the expense of losing some spicy character.

Use a combination of the following spices to create your own curry blend (toasting whole spices prior to steeping lends more flavor):

black & white peppercorns
black & white cumin seeds
black, brown, & green cardamom pods
coriander seeds & leaves
cloves
cinnamon
fenugreek
ginger
curry leaves
mustard seeds
toasted coconut
dried red chili
pequin chile
turmeric
long pepper
caraway
fennel seed
celery seed

Not my cup of tea, but I assume you would employ a similar method used to create this Pizza Beer, but focus on the typical curry flavors instead.

I was thinking an English IPA, and then make a vodka tincture with curry spices and some fresh hot pepper, strain and then add to taste at bottling/kegging.

This just seems so obvious - India and curry, come on people!

Do it

Blech.

And I love me some curry.

tmoney645 said:

Do it

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I thought my hops salsa was brilliant also. Not so much. Your beer probably has a better chance, but I'm not investing yet.

Maybe make the tincture and test on a glass of beer for now. Please take pics of your face as you drink it. Video preferred.

I thought of a wasabi pilsner once. So I tested the idea out by putting wasabi paste in an already bottled pilsner. It had a generic vegetal taste, no hotness at all.

I'd suggest going with just spices & turmeric.

Why hasn't CreamyGoodness found this thread, its like it was made for him. Someone should turn on the Creamy signal for him . . .

I drank a mustard beer at the Michigan Beerfest last summer, and it was hard to drink. It was a very light beer with over the top mustard flavor. I'm a huge mustard fan, but that beer was near undrinkable. Curry may be a different story, it would be difficult to dial in the right intensity of flavor without making some sort of vodka tea with curry and mixing that with a small sample of your brew. I would be wary of just dumping in a bought curry powder mix. It could be very overpowering depending on the curry.

StonesBally said:

it would be difficult to dial in the right intensity of flavor without making some sort of vodka tea with curry and mixing that with a small sample of your brew. I would be wary of just dumping in a bought curry powder mix. It could be very overpowering depending on the curry.

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Exactly, I think the tincture is the way to go. Add a little, taste. Add a little more, taste. Until its, as the baby bear said, just right.

Beernik said:

I thought of a wasabi pilsner once. So I tested the idea out by putting wasabi paste in an already bottled pilsner. It had a generic vegetal taste, no hotness at all.

I'd suggest going with just spices & turmeric.

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I've actually had a commercial wasabi ale, custom brewed for a sushi restaurant. I remember it being OK. Went well with sushi, tasted weird on its own.

Not an IPA, but a curry beer.

http://beerstreetjournal.com/meet-new-belgium-lips-of-faith-coconut-curry-hefeweizen/

I think it could be a good idea. I imagine it would end up tasting like you took a bite of curry, then a sip of IPA, but without actually being in an Indian restaurant. Or maybe it could be awful, who know? Only one way to find out!

On the plus side, since it sounds like you'd do the majority of this in secondary, it would be easy to make a full batch and try a bunch of ideas in smaller containers, like growlers or something.