Beer Forum

I was just wondering if anyone has tried using black pepper in an APA or maybe in a Wit. I recently made an APA with some Willamette and Cascade dryhop. I has a nice citrusy and somewhat peppery flavor from the dryhops and I thought that maybe adding a very slight bit of black pepper would accentuate it even more. I've had vodka that has been infused with black pepper and it was actually pretty good.

Obviously, the challenge lies keeping the pepper from becoming noticeable by flavor. So I guess the questions break down as such:
Should it be boiled? or maybe added in conjunction with dryhopping?
Should the peppercorns be cracked or left whole?
Is this just a terrible fucking idea?

Thanks guys and Cheers!

I've had Wit with black peppercorn, and a Porter with pepper "medley", both brewed by some of my club members, and both were good... I think a number of commercial Belgians (Saisons mostly) use peppercorn also. From what I remember, the peppercorns were cracked and added at the end of the boil.

I brew an amber with cracked peppercorns added at 5 minutes. I believe it accentuates the malt flavor in the beer. There is a barely a hint of pepper in the finish. I tried it with an abbey wheat I made for Christmas, but the yeast scrubbed all the spice flavor out. So I've never had much luck getting the pepper flavor to last.

The commonly found "pepper" in beer are Grains of Paradise. These are a type of pepper you can find in most LHBS. Black pepper or the pepper medley as mentioned will also work fine. Make sure you are freshly grinding fresh peppercorns, not using that finely ground crap that has been sitting in your cupboard for the past five years.

Wayne

Roger that! Thanks for the help guys. I might try it at flame out to begin with. About how much do you use by chance? This would be a 5 Gal batch.

I used 10 black peppercorns for 5 gallons of my last batch of spiced Belgian ale, with good results. It's subtle in the flavor, detectable without being overpowering. On bottling day, I cracked them slightly with a mallet, soaked in a shot of vodka for about 4 to 6 hours, then poured just the spiced vodka into the beer, leaving the actual peppercorns behind. That way you leach out the essence of the pepper without adding the solids. It works great. If you're in a hurry, heat the vodka in your microwave for 10 seconds before adding the pepper.

That is awesome! Thanks so much. I love this forum.

get some more of that black pepper vodka and add it drop by drop to a couple of ounces of your APA or Wit, then you'll know just how much you want