homebrewing Archives

Recipe

Jalapeño Business Pale Ale

Posted on April 23, 2019May 12, 2019by mrwesleyjohnson

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

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
3 gal	60 min	35.15 IBUs	7.32 SRM	1.047	1.010	5.17 %

Fermentables

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

Split jalapeños (1 deseeded) before roasting.

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

jalapeños in the boil

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

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Tasting

Blueberry Muffin IPA Tasting

Posted on February 1, 2019by mrwesleyjohnson

Appearance

Dark blue, indigo, wine-like color with a light pink head.

Aroma

Jammy and fruity, bright fresh, deep blueberry, and light sweet malt. faint hops.

Mouthfeel

Medium mouthfeel that’s lightly creamy with nice, lightly prickly carbonation.

Taste

At first you’re hit with a fresh, deep blueberry flavor and it washes with lightly sweet malt and finishes with blueberry essence and light hoppiness. The blueberry is the star here, but some light, sweet malty flavors are present.

Notes

This beer is really tasty! It has a light malt backbone that really let the blueberries shine. The flavor is unmistakably fruity and juicy and it drinks quite clean. It could be more muffin-like, but the flavor is so pleasant and fruity you don’t miss it. If I were to brew it again and wanted more muffin, I’d up the victory and Munich malt and maybe even add another “bready” malt in there as well. Overall, a very good beer.

Check the recipe here.

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Tasting

Enigma Oat Coat Tasting

Posted on January 26, 2019January 26, 2019by mrwesleyjohnson

Beer

Appearance

Golden/orange/light honey color, light haze. Stiff white head that dissipates slowly.

Aroma

Stone fruit, melon, pineapple, berry, light spice, sweet malt, oaty, crisp.

Mouthfeel

Medium mouthfeel, light body, but a little creamy, nice crispy carbonation.

Taste

Starts with light sweet malt and oat flavors, then washes with tropical, fruity, and lightly dank hop flavor. There’s a tiny hint of spice and it finishes with light clean bitterness that doesn’t linger.

Notes

I’m really digging this beer, and I <3 enigma hops. It drinks really clean, like a pale ale, and it has great aroma and mouthfeel. This beer could work with other hops as well. The oats add a nice mouthfeel and flavor and It’s supremely drinkable. It cleared quite a bit in the keg, but the flavors were stable for the life of the keg.

Check the recipe here.

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Recipe

Blueberry Muffin IPA

Posted on January 16, 2019January 16, 2019by mrwesleyjohnson

In my early days of brewing I found a post on Homebrewtalk about a Blueberry Oatmeal IPA and I tweaked the recipe a bit and brewed it. Everything was going well until I added fresh blueberries to the secondary and that’s when I got my first infection! Ever since I’ve always used frozen fruit and haven’t had any issues.

I rarely brew the exact same beer twice, but I often make tweaks and brew a similar recipe which brought up the Blueberry Muffin Ale. For this beer I used a base of 2 row, a bunch of oats (malted and flaked), a little Munich malt for some clean maltiness, and added some victory malt for that biscuity, toasy, bready component. I added a dash of maltodextrine for mouthfeel and mosaic hops later in the boil for aroma. I then added 3 lbs of blueberries for 7 days in the secondary and opted out (forgot) the dry hop. It was nice to revisit the idea of this beer and add what I felt the recipe needed. Check it out!