Jalapeño Business Pale Ale

I had a really tasty beer with Serrano peppers from Headflyer Brewing, it was crisp, fruity, and full of pepper flavor and aroma with very little to no heat.  They describe it as “a combination of light heat from Serrano peppers paired with the citrus backdrop of pineapple” and it was bangin! This reminded me of some habanero peppers I put in vodka to make a tincture a while ago. When using peppers, a lot of people suggest using tinctures so you can start with a little and adjust the flavor\heat. I’ve also heard of using peppers in the boil to get deeper flavor. After some research on how to go about using the peppers, I wanted something easy drinking with nice pepper flavor so I settled on a Jalapeno Pale Ale.

To get the pepper flavor I wanted, I used them in the boil and also made a tincture to dose at kegging. For the boil peppers, I split and roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes and threw them in the for last 15 minutes of the boil (1 deseeded). I ended up using all of the tincture at kegging to get maximum pepper flavor. Halfway through the keg I threw in a chopped jalapeno I froze in case I needed more. It added some nice spice and fresh pepper flavor. I wanted to use fruity hops, since it paired well in the beer that inspired this recipe so I used El Dorado and Citra hops. I’m quite pleased how this beer came out and it’s all gone as I write this. Check the recipe.

Jalapeño Business Pale Ale

Name	Amount	%
Pale Ale Malt	4 lbs	72.7
Red Wheat	1 lbs	18.2
Crystal 40L	.3 lbs	5.5
Golden Naked Oats	.2 lbs	3.6

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
El Dorado	3 g	60 min	Boil	pellet	14.4
El Dorado	.5 oz	8 min	Boil	pellet	14.4
Citra	.5 oz	5 min	Boil	pellet	13.1
El Dorado	.5 oz	3 days	Dry hop	pellet	14.4
Citra	.5 oz	3 days	Dry hop	pellet	13.1

Other

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form
Jalapeño peppers	2 each	15 min	Boil	Spice
Jalapeno tincture	~1.5 oz	0 days	Keg	Spice

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
American Ale Yeast US-05	Fermentis/Safale	74-76%	64°F-82°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash	150°F	60 min

Water

Calcium	Magnesium	Sodium	Chloride	Sulfate
129	2	12	109	151

Fermentation

Step	Time	Temperature
Primary	10 days	Ambient (~68)

Notes

Brewed: 4/4/19 | OG: 1.046 | FG: 1.008 | ABV: 5%

Water: Minneapolis tap water,  campden added, 2.5 g gypsum, 2 g calcium chloride

70% efficiency| Mash ph: 5.1 (adjusted) | whirfloc/yeast nutrient @15