Sun May 30, 2010 4:54 am
For my award-winning jalapeno porter, the peppers are added ON BOTTLING DAY. That's right. In the morning on bottling day, I buy some fresh ripe peppers, chop them all up -- seeds and all -- and boil half of the chopped peppers in a little beer, and soak the other half in hot vodka and/or tequila. Both solutions soak for about 5 hours at room temperature before adding to the beer. Then, just add the liquid to the bottling bucket. This keeps chunks and seeds out of your beer, but adds ALL the flavor and aroma, and most if not all of the heat.
The heat does vary a bit, but based on my experience, a rough guideline is to use about 8 jalapenos for mild heat, 11 or 12 for medium-hot, and more for intense heat. I don't have experience with serranos or others -- not yet.
Dave
"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our Maker, and glory to His bounty, by learning about... BEER!" - Friar Tuck (Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves)