Advice on Chili Wheat beer for Newbie

[steppenwulf]

I am coming back to brewing after about 10 years - if you can really say I was brewing before. I previously used a Mr. Beer setup my wife bought me, and brewed from kits, but I did always add my own touches, like a Honey Pale Ale that turned out great.

Anyway, I now set myself up with some 5 gal brewing equipment, and am planning to do an extract brew on the weekend. My planned recipe is:

9 lb Wheat extract
1 lb light candy sugar
1/2 lb Crystal 60 (steep)
1 oz Tradition hops - 60 min boil
Danstar Munich German Wheat Beer yeast
1 oz coriander seed - dry fried and added at the end of the boil
zest from one lime
12 hot Thai chilis (green) added before racking for second fermentation

I figure I'll get a beer somewhere around 7%, and the chili taste shouldn't be overpowering - 12 chilis for 5 gals of beer is not too much, but you should be able to taste the afterbite.

Any thoughts or suggested improvements?

[cul8rv8]

wheat extract, are you talking liquid or dry? I assume liquid, since I think dry would bring you in closer to a 9% ABV wth the candi sugar and crystal malt.

I'm not familiar with using the thai chilis, but can tell you that my jalapeno pilsner I make, I use one whole pepper split down the middle in the boil, then add a roasted jalapeno split down the middle to secondary (both seeds, ribs, and all in both cases), and the beer has a bit of heat to it. I have friends that don't like spicy things that won't drink it. Though here in the southwest most people like spicy stuff, so it's usually a big hit except for a couple people. That doesn't give you much when it comes to the thai chilis, but something to compare too. In mine, it gives great jalapeno flavor, then the heat comes in after you swallow it down on the back of the tongue and a touch in the throat. It's great!

[steppenwulf]

Yes, I am using liquid extract. By the way, I was quite surprised that liquid extract is significantly cheaper than dry.

Thai chilis are much hotter than Jalapenos. They are a bit sharper and more bitter and not as "grassy" or fruity. They are also a lot smaller - one jalapeno is about as big as 4-6 thai chilis - but small as it is, a single thai chili is a lot hotter than the much bigger jalapeno.

I can take a lot of heat, but I don't want the chili flavour to overpower the beer, and I do want to be able to serve it to my friends - maybe I'll go down to 6 chilis or less. I guess I could put 3 in at the end of the boil, and then taste it before adding more during the 2nd fermentation. I think it will get much hotter in the 2nd fermentation, because capascin is not soluble in water, but rather in oil or alcohol.

Anyway, thanks for the warning - I think I will do it in steps, to be careful

[hooky]

It's always easier to add it than to take it out.

Wanna trade seeds for the thai peppers? I have some chilis that I like, but i've been wanting to grow some small thai peppers.

[steppenwulf]

Well - its in the fermentor, went in yesterday.

I bought a wort chiller, but it leaked, and some unboiled water got into the wort, hopefully the beer will be ok. I put in two packs of Danstar German Wheat Beer yeast, just in case that helps.

I also found out we had run out of Thai chili, and my regular store was out also. I had to put in some much milder long hot chili - it has a nice sweet hot flavour though. I'll add more in the 2ndary fermentation, if there isn't enough

The recipe was:

9lb Wheat Malt Extract
1lb Crystal 60 Malt
1lb Light Candy Sugar
0.75 oz German Tradition hops - 60 min boil
1oz coriander seed - dry fried, 5min boil
zest of 3 limes - 5min boil
10 long hot chilis - 5min boil

Original Gravity - 1.084

With the water that went in during the cooling down period, I hope the beer isn't contaminated. There is some CO2 coming out now (very occasional bubble), and it smells excellent, so I am hopeful.