need help for a black peppercorn beer

[belsonc]

Hey all -

So I'm making beer for a friend's party in a couple of months, and he asked me for a clone.

Of Dieu de Ciel Route des Epices (with all appropriate accents, and maybe even a couple of inappropriate ones).

For those who haven't seen/tried this, it's a rye beer with black peppercorns. However, I'm an extract/grains brewer who has never tackled something like this before. From my understanding, rye needs to be mini-mashed, yes? Or can it be steeped? And how would you intrepid souls be tempted to use the black peppercorns? I've been told i can use grains of paradise as an option by someone, but we never got to talk about how or how much. So at this point, I'm really kind of grasping at straws here - Anyone have any ideas, suggestions, or recipes I can use? Let me know - thanks!

[Mikegobrew]

I'd add half teaspoon of fresh ground pepper corns at the end of the boil and another half teaspoon when you pitch your yeast.

[corkybstewart]

I think I used 1/2 teaspoon for a 10 gallon batch of saison once, crushed but not finely ground. I use a mortar and pestle for my pepper corns so I get exactly the crush I want. Paradise grains are also very peppery, crush them slightly. Whichever you use add for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
I think rye needs to be mashed. I would probably use about 3 pounds of rye and a pound of pilsner malt in 1.5 gallons of water. You could do this in your brew kettle, than move the mash to a colander and pour hot water through it for a simple sparge. Mini mashing is really pretty simple.