Author: Jake Huolihan

Of the various adjuncts that can be added to beer, hot chili peppers are among the most unique, imparting flavors commonly associated with Southwestern cuisine along with a noticeable heat. While the ultimate Scoville rating of a chili beer largely depends on the types and amounts of peppers used, some content the method of extraction plays an equally important role.

A common and simple method for imparting chili characteristics in beer involves adding the chopped fruit directly to the beer, usually during fermentation similar to a dry hop addition. However, there are some who believe adding that much plant matter to the beer leads to undesirable flavors, and to avoid this, they use a tincture.

In general, tinctures are extracts produced by soaking a particular material, in this case chili peppers, in alcohol over a period of time, after which the material is separated from the liquid. Commonly used in cooking to add the essence of a certain ingredient to a dish, tinctures offer brewers an easy way to experiment with different flavors that not only eliminates the addition of vegetal matter to their beer, but comes with minimal risk in that dosing can occur on a very small scale.

Since moving to Colorado in 2012 I learned that many people here are obsessed with adding chili flavor to anything possible, beer being no different. While I’ve had some awesome examples of chili beers in the past I’ve never quite brewed them often enough to have strong opinions on the best method for extracting those great flavors and heat. After a recent discussion with a fellow homebrewer I decided to put tincture extraction versus dry-peppering to the test.

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between beers where either fresh chili peppers were added directly or a chili pepper tincture was used.

| METHODS |

My favorite chili beers have started with a base that’s light and pale, which allows the pepper character to shine. As such, I went with a simple Kölsch as the base style for this xBmt.

Fuego

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.2 gal 60 min 42.9 IBUs 3.4 SRM 1.044 1.010 4.5 % Actuals 1.044 1.01 4.5 % Fermentables Name Amount % EuroPils (Cargill) 10 lbs 100 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Perle 20 g 60 min Boil Pellet 7.2 Perle 30 g 30 min Boil Pellet 7.2 Miscs Name Amount Time Use Type Chilis 2.20 oz 7 days Secondary Spice Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Dieter (G03) Imperial Yeast 75% 60°F - 69°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 65 | Mg 0 | Na 8 | SO4 67 | Cl 68 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I made a single large starter of Imperial Yeast G03 Dieter a couple days ahead time.

The night before brewing, I weighed out the grains and collected the RO water for a single 10 gallon/38 liter batch.

I began heating the water first thing the next morning then moved on to milling the grain.

With the water properly heating, I mashed in and gently stirred before checking to ensure I’d hit my target mash temperature.

At this point, I weighed out the kettle hop additions.

At the end of the 60 minute mash rest, I collected the sweet wort then brought it up to a boil.

My miniature assistant helped me add hops at the times stated in the recipe.

Once the 60 minute boil was complete, I quickly chilled the wort.

A refractometer reading showed the wort had hit the expected OG.

After allowing the cold break to settle out of the wort, it was evenly split between identical fermentors that were placed in my chamber controlled to 62°F/17°C. After pitching identical amounts of the yeast starter into each batch, I proceeded with pepper preparation.

After coring and washing 6 jalapeños, 3 went into a vacuum sealed bag that was placed in my freezer while the other 3 were diced and tossed into canning jars with a total of 4 oz/118 mL of Everclear. The peppers were left alone until hydrometer measurements indicated the beers had reached FG, which was 7 days post-pitch.

At this point, I added the untreated peppers directly to one beer while the other received the pepper tincture, which had the peppers strained out.

I let the jalapeños mingle with the beer for another 7 days before racking the beers to CO2 purged kegs.

The beers were left to carbonate and condition in my keezer for a couple weeks before being served to unsuspecting participants. While both eventually cleared, I noticed the tincure beer took a bit longer than the one hit with actual peppers.

| RESULTS |

A total of 23 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 1 sample of the fresh chili beer and 2 samples of the chili tincture beer in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the unique sample. A total of 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to accurately identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, but only 10 (p=0.21) did, indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish a chili beer made with either fresh jalapeños or a jalapeño tincture.

My Impressions: Despite thinking I could tell a difference between these beers based on samples I took prior to packaging, I simply could not tell them apart in my own series of blind triangle tests. As for the beer, I loved loved loved it! The jalapeño flavors really came through and paired beautifully with the Kölsch base beer. As good as it was, I’ll likely be adding a habañero to my next batch to up the heat a bit more.

| DISCUSSION |

When it comes to adding fruits and vegetables to beer, there’s a lot of talk about the impact the flesh will have on its flavor, with many arguing it can impart undesirable vegetal characteristics. Given the earthy nature of most peppers, many brewers of chili beers have taken to producing tinctures to extract the good stuff then adding the resultant liquid sans flesh. Some also claim using tinctures can lead to more pungent pepper characteristics in beer. Interestingly, the results from this xBmt seem to suggest the flesh of peppers may not have much of a noticeable impact.

One caveat to this xBmt is that it was completed 5 gallon/19 liter batches with a relatively small amount of peppers. While it’s possible these findings could scale to larger batch sizes, there’s a chance the effect isn’t necessarily linear, that the same ratio of pepper flesh to beer in a bigger batch could extract more undesirable flavors.

That said, as a homebrewer who loves chili beers and couldn’t tell these xBmt beers apart at all, I see no reason to choose one method over the other based on flavor. For the person who likes the spicier side of brewing, I could see having a large vat of pepper tincture being quite convenient, allowing for easy additions to anything from a pint to a full batch. It’s also a good way to test the pungency of the pepper beforehand, allowing for precise dosing to achieve the desired heat and flavor profile. But for the person making a one-off, adding some diced up chunks of fresh chilis will likely do the trick equally as well.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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