Green Chile Beer Attempt

[dandw12786]

I took my first trip to Colorado last week, and while in Fort Collins, I had dinner at a brewpub called Coopersmiths. I don't know if anyone has been there, but they have a green chile beer there that is spectacular, and since I've tried it I've been obsessing over it. To help with those who haven't had it, it seems like a basic golden ale recipe, hops aren't really present, this beer is about the chile peppers, and it is a very fresh pepper flavor, not smoked, and a small amount of heat, but it didn't hang on very long. I've put this recipe together with information I've found on the forums and Coopersmith's website, so any help would be appreciated, mainly needing help with the amount of chile peppers, and how to put them in.

8 lbs 2-row
.5 lbs crystal 10-L
.5 oz magnum
Neutral yeast, probably S-05 or similar.

I was going to use anaheim and serrano chile peppers, as that is what is listed on Coopersmith's website. I loved the fresh chile pepper flavor of this beer (I had a chile beer later in the week that was more of a smoked chile flavor, didn't dig it as much, thought the fresh pepper flavor went better with the golden ale). I was thinking of maybe just halving 2 of each, freezing to break the cell walls, and soaking them in vodka and "dry hopping" them for a few days to get the flavor. Should I throw these in the boil instead? Roast them before dry-hopping? I don't want a cooked flavor to come through, so I'm hesitant about roasting them. Any advice to make this beer nothing short of spectacular?

 

[Fetus]

If I were going to make a chile beer, I'd brew it up, ferment it out, then secondary on the chiles. I'd use 1-2 lbs per gallon(Edit: although, it really depends on how much flavor you want from the chilis. Adjust as desired.), and then sample it occasionally until it has the desired level of chile flavor. I'd roast them prior to adding them, and chop them up. I wouldn't worry about freezing them, though. Flash pasteurization wouldn't hurt, though.

Dry Dock, in Aurora CO, makes an occasional firkin of Green Chili Double IPA. Fantastic stuff.

 

[TastySalmon]

I was under the impression that breweries that made chilli beers just threw whole, uncooked ones into the keg. I don't know about the chillies you have listed, but the habanero chilli beer I had a few months ago just had 1 in the keg. 1-2 lbs. per gallon might be a tad undrinkable.

 

[slamram99]

based on what i know about peppers. 1-2 lbs per gallon would definitely undrinkable. my suggestion would be to chop fresh peppers and add them to secondary. you can use vodka but limit your vodka use to avoid that nasty taste.

 

[Kaleco]

I did a green chile beer last year. This worked for my girlfriend and I. We started with 6 peppers, 2 poblano, 1 jalapeno, and 3 anaheim. Grilled the peppers on the grill until the skins were black. While warm, peeled the skins off, which removed the smokiness, removed the seeds, and then we tasted pieces of them to determine how much spiciness we'd get. One of the anaheims was really hot, almost like we got a wrong chile by accident. Placed the peeled peppers in a freezer ziplock and put them into the freezer, made sure they were separated somewhat in the bag so they didn't freeze together. Once fermentation was done, we popped in the two poblanos and the mild anaheims. Waited a few days and then started tasting for the right chile flavor. When it was right, we popped in the jalapeno and spicy anaheim and by the next day it had the right amount of heat, where it just burned enough. Bottled that day to get it off the hot peppers.

Sorry for all the bad grammar and such.

EDIT: Oh yeah, we figured cooking to freezer to alcohol in the beer would keep down any infection and we dropped them into the fermenter frozen. We didn't have any issue with ours.

 

[bleme]

You can dip the whole chiles in Star San or Iodopher, then chop with a sanitized knife on a sanitized board. There aren't going to be any bacteria inside the chile.

 

[bcgpete]

I made a habanero lager with 4 smoked habaneros in 5 gal. Nearly undrinkable, very very spicy, but the smoked pepper flavor is still there and good.

Sunday I racked a 5 gal golden ale onto 3 anaheims and 1 serrano that I roasted in the oven to bring out some flavors. I'm thinking this will be a better balance. When I keg it I may add another serrano, because I do want a small bit of heat.

 

[slcalex]

I took my first trip to Colorado last week, and while in Fort Collins, I had dinner at a brewpub called Coopersmiths. I don't know if anyone has been there, but they have a green chile beer there that is spectacular, and since I've tried it I've been obsessing over it. To help with those who haven't had it, it seems like a basic golden ale recipe, hops aren't really present, this beer is about the chile peppers, and it is a very fresh pepper flavor, not smoked, and a small amount of heat, but it didn't hang on very long. I've put this recipe together with information I've found on the forums and Coopersmith's website, so any help would be appreciated, mainly needing help with the amount of chile peppers, and how to put them in.

8 lbs 2-row
.5 lbs crystal 10-L
.5 oz magnum
Neutral yeast, probably S-05 or similar.

I was going to use anaheim and serrano chile peppers, as that is what is listed on Coopersmith's website. I loved the fresh chile pepper flavor of this beer (I had a chile beer later in the week that was more of a smoked chile flavor, didn't dig it as much, thought the fresh pepper flavor went better with the golden ale). I was thinking of maybe just halving 2 of each, freezing to break the cell walls, and soaking them in vodka and "dry hopping" them for a few days to get the flavor. Should I throw these in the boil instead? Roast them before dry-hopping? I don't want a cooked flavor to come through, so I'm hesitant about roasting them. Any advice to make this beer nothing short of spectacular?

How'd it turn out?

I love the Coopersmith's chili ale. I did a partial mash based on the info form their website. Fermenting away....

 

[slcalex]

Oh yeah I also found this info searching the net:

A late addition to the chile-in-beer discussion, but I got some recipe-
like info. A couple of folks had already mentioned Coopersmith's in Ft
Collins, CO, which makes "Sigda's Green Chili [sic] Beer".

I think Sigda's is an excellent beer. The chile and beer flavors blend
nicely. It's got just the right amount of bite--not enough to hurt, nor to
make it the sole province of chile aficionados, but definitely enough to
leave no doubt that it's a chile beer. More importantly, it's got a real
character of the chiles. Compared to Cave Creek, I'd take this any day.

The basic recipe is a pale ale, only light malt (no crystal, etc.), and
lightly hopped. Ummm, lessee...they're using English malts. Mash is a
single infusion; don't remember temperatures.

During fermentation, they add chopped green chiles of the sort folks
commonly call "Anaheim". (They get them frozen in bulk.) They use 20 lb
"mild" and 30 lb "hot" in an 8 bbl batch. Keep in mind that the "mild" and
"hot" here are relative to Anaheims, which are all down toward the mild end
of the scale. The chiles are in hop bags in the fermenter. Anyway, that's
just for the fermentation...when they transfer to the aging/serving tank,
they remove the Anaheims and add 2 lb of chopped serranos for the aging
period. This beer is served in-house only, directly from the aging tanks.
That is, none of it is bottled, although you can buy it by the jug to take
home. It's rather cloudy; they don't make much of an attempt to clarify
it. (They fine, but don't filter, their beers.)

Just for perspective--since the 8 bbl batch size is a bit awkward for home
brewing: It's about equivalent to a pound of Anaheims and somewhat over
half an ounce of serranos for a five-gallon batch. (Remember, the weights
refer to prepared [peeled/seeded] chiles.)

It would be interesting to see whether a beer like Sigda's could be bottled
and kept for a while. I have my doubts; I suspect that the chile taste
would fade or mutate somehow. I'd also guess that if it could be success-
fully fined or filtered, you'd lose a lot of the character.

[and while I'm at it, a plug: If you have occasion to pass through Ft
Collins, Coopersmith's is well worth a visit. In addition to the chile
beer (which seems to be regularly available) they'll have half a dozen
others on tap, including some unusual ones: I caught the tail end of their
raspberry ale today. There was a blueberry wheat beer in a fermenter so I
suspect that will be available in another two or three weeks. They'll
also give you a tour of the brewery by someone knowledgable if you're there
on a Saturday afternoon.
I hate to admit it...Ft Collins and Boulder are similar-size towns with four
breweries each, but Ft Collins brews easily win on variety and interest.]
---
Dick Dunn [email protected] -or- raven!rcd Boulder, Colorado USA
...Simpler is better.