Here we go again……Fire and Brimstone

OK, so the other day I received the package I had been waiting for. It was a glorious box of beer supplies for my next brew. Now I opened the box and there was the usual assortment of ingredients, dry malt, malt syrup, a pound of crushed grains, a couple of different kinds of hops, and a packet of dehydrated yeast. Pretty standard stuff, nothing to get super excited about. Just the basics for a nice pale ale. Well, I have been in the experimental mood lately, and a plain pale ale just wasn’t going to cut it so I pulled out my “special ingredients” :

1. Chili Peppers – Jalapenos and Habaneros (Fire)
2. Oak Chips
3. Liquid Smoke (Brimstone)
That’s right, another hot pepper beer. Now, just a little quick history, my first hot pepper beer, was pretty hot. I could drink one and my lips burned for days. You know that feeling after eating a bunch of atomic chicken wings, where your lips burn and tingle and nothing but sweet, sweet time can pull you out of the fetal position and settle the swelling of your lips. Yeah, it was pretty awesome!! My buddy Dinker and a select few people actually enjoyed the beer for more than a novelty.
So this is take 2 on that beer, but I am adding a few other ingredients to try and balance the heat from the peppers. So I am adding some oak chips to add a softer mouthfeel and a little bitterness. Then I added some liquid smoke, what I am going for is a smoky, grilled peppers kind of aroma/flavor. We’ll see what I get, all of the beer recipes I have found on using Liquid Smoke were a bit ambiguous as to when to add it to the beer and how much to add. Smoke flavor can be a bit overpowering if too much is used, some recipes called for 2 tablespoons, where others said that 1 1/2 teaspoons was just enough. Then some recipes said to add it at the end of the boil and others said to add it directly to the fermenter. Oh, what the hell, I had no idea what to do so I split the difference and hedged my bets. I added a 1/2 teaspoon to the boil and then 1 1/2 teaspoons directly to the fermenter. So here’s hoping for the best.
All of this was done to find the perfect backyard barbeque beer. I want a beer that is a perfect compliment to a summer barbeque. A beer that perfectly compliments a nice juicy burger straight from the grill. I want this beer to have a little heat, but some roasted/smoky notes so when you taste it, it quenches your thirst but leaves you picturing that giant burger topped with a melted slice of jalapeno pepperjack cheese.
So with some wishful thinking I put the lid on the fermenter, inserted the airlock and tucked this beer away for the night. I gave it a quick check this morning to find it happily bubbling away, so we shall see what I get. Just a short couple of weeks and we’ll give it a taste. Hell, maybe I’ll throw a BBQ and you can taste it and tell me how close I came to the perfect BBQ beer.
Until then, support your local brewers and drink local.