Gak & Gerry's Batch #75: Pepper Pale for Paris

Classification: pepper beer, spiced beer, jalapeno, all-grain

Source: Richard Stueven (rstueven@netcom.com), r.c.b., September 27, 1995

Here's a winner from my notebook.

I'm usually pretty critical of my own beers, but I've gotta say this one blew away absolutely every microbrewed chili beer I've ever tasted! Forget about Ed's Cave Creek...my #75 hurts Real Good and makes you thirst for more.

Ingredients:

7.0 pounds British two-row
0.5 pounds British light caramel
35 grams Cascade (4.9%) - 60 minutes
28 grams Cascade (4.9%) - 20 minutes
Wyeast American Ale yeast
10.5 ounces chopped jalapenos (in secondary)

Procedure:

Mash-in 2.75 gallons water at 130F
Rest at 122F for 45 minutes
Rest at 152F for 60 minutes
Sparge to 6.5 gallons
Boil 90 minutes, adding hops listed above
Chill, whirlpool, and rack

So far so good, eh? This was a fantastic beer even before I carbonated it. But you asked for jalapenos, so here goes...

Added 10.5 ounces chopped jalapenos into the secondary. Next morning, Gerry noticed spots of mold on top, so kegged, carbonated, and tasted...

...HOT! But it really does taste like a good beer too.

Peppers mellowing day by day. Should be outstanding in 2 weeks if the mold doesn't come back.

And guess what? The mold didn't come back, and the beer was well received by all. Be advised, it was HOT AS HELL! If I ever brew something like this again, I'll use one can (3.5 ounces) of peppers instead of three. Also, that mold growth was a surprise...I'll need to sanitize the peppers somehow, probably by parboiling them before dropping them in the secondary.