Adding Habanero to Keg?

[Brendo23]

I brewed an all grain Mango Habanero IPA about 3 weeks ago. I added one Habanero puréed with Mango at 10 minutes left at boil. After I transferred to my secondary I dry hopped and added one more cut up Habanero for 10 days. As I transferred to the keg I had a sample and really couldn't taste or get any heat from the pepper. My question is, if I soak some more peppers in vodka can I add it to the keg after it carbs to get the heat that I am looking for?

Thanks!!

 

[day_trippr]

I think I'd make the extract, dose a glass of your beer with an eyedropper, and see how many drops it takes to get it where you want it. A drop of alcohol is accepted to be 0.05 ml, fwiw, so with a bit of math you could scale up to the full keg...

Cheers!

 

[Wingnutj]

I made a Spiced Ale and used multiple hot peppers. I did the same thing (wort wise) and nothing came of the heat.
So after dinking around and wanted to trans the beer to a vessel I went the extract route. I was tasting/checking every other day with no avail.
*Extract * That's the best decision I made. It worked, it doesn't take a lot. it will be worth your time and $ in produce on peppers lol
I used a small mason jar and placed my peppers in there cut w/ vodka and then strained before putting into secondary. (I also placed mine in the freezer as I heard or the possibility the yeast from the peppers "could" mess with the fermenting - just what I heard. I wasn't gonna chance it lol) Everyone asks about that beer and I will soon take it out and make it again as a seasonal.

Best of luck!

 

[VladTheImbiber]

I didn't see a clear answer about adding peppers to keg. I made a sculpin clone and added 7 habs to secondary. No heat. Was going to add some to the Keg, leave them in there until the beer is gone which could take "a while". Is that ok? Soak peppers in vodka, drain, cut in half and place in muslin bag, dropped into corny keg (which has been slowly carbonating for 2 weeks now ... so it's about ready to drink). PS> Peppers are in the freezer, from my garden and they are crazy hot (made sauce recently) so peppers not being hot was not an issue.

 

[cubalz]

Making a tincture is the way to go using grain alcohol and minced/pureed habaneros. Add the tincture at kegging ,you WILL get the flavor and heat that way. You will need to experiment with how much of the tincture to add to get the desired heat and flavor.

 

[Shenanigans]

Making a tincture is the way to go using grain alcohol and minced/pureed habaneros. Add the tincture at kegging ,you WILL get the flavor and heat that way. You will need to experiment with how much of the tincture to add to get the desired heat and flavor.

This probably answers your question.

Just for others the recipe in the below link has been fairly successful so maybe some tips for others who want to get it right without adding to the keg.

Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer - Jalapeno Cream Ale | Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

I brewed this about 5 or 6 years ago.
I bottled and messed it up by dumping too much of the vodka into the beer and making it way too hot.
You need to be careful to get the right balance.
Since then I've kept away from chilli beers but might give it another go next Summer.

 

[JeremyJed]

I make a Mango habanero blonde and add one habanero to the boil with 10 mins left. I add another from a tincture into the secondary along with the mango in a muslin bag.
Doing this I've never gotten the taste of the habanero, but I always feel a warm burn at the back of the throat like you'd get from a glass of bourbon.

I will say though, the burn seems to get stronger the longer the keg sits so maybe give it time?

 

[Bobby_M]

I make a beer with mango and habanero and stopped adding pepper to the boil. It's useless. I ferment with the mango puree from day one, once it's generally clear it gets kegged. I cut up two habaneros paper thin with a razor blade and put it into mesh bag with no seeds and hang it in the keg with fine dental floss. 24 hours later it's good to go. Pull the bag and purge the headspace.

 

[rhorwitz]

I racked and kegged a vanilla habanero porter last weekend. First batch of beer I made in 2 years and consequently I made a few few mistakes. First, I minced both habanero and vanilla bean and placed them into this new-fangled SS fine meshed dry hopper cage. I did not tether it and it sank to the bottom of my conical fermenter, eventually being buried in trub. After 2 weeks I noticed that the essence of both adjuncts were slight at best, so I minced some more habanero and placed them into a hops bag allowing it to float. I added some vanilla extract. Eventually getting the desired taste. One observation that many can attest to is that every habanero is going to have a different heat value (scoville), your mileage will vary.