Question about my Hatch Chile Cream Ale.

Quick post to answer a question about my Hatch Chile Cream Ale.

I used a Cream Ale as a base. You want a low hop character base beer. Any will do.When I created my recipe I used Jamil's proportions and Hallertaur b/c I had them on hand. I also skipped the aroma addition, the chiles will dominate anyway.

http://beerdujour.com/Recipes/Jamil/The_Jamil_Show_-_Cream_Ale.html

This is a low mash temp (149) so expect a thinner more alcoholic beer. I think that's good when you add the chiles though. A good balance. Also note because of the PIlsner Malt, you'll want a 90+ minute boil to ward off any DMS.

Primary as normal and rack to a secondary.

As for the Chiles. I used 8 Hatch.

From my experience in the garden, Home grown are hotter and smaller. You'll want to get a feel for the heat index and the mass difference. Roast the chiles on a BBQ grill charring the skins on all sides. Normally for cooking you'll put all the chiles in a paper bag until cool so you can skin them, but in this case we want the skins and stems and seeds b/c they will add aroma. Keep the whole because then you have more consistancy. If you dice them, you will always have to dice them the same way making it difficult to scale and replicate.

Ok, so freeze all of the peppers. This will break the cell walls. Keep them separated if possible so they will be easy to drop in the secondary easily. If they get stuck together, you'll have to let them thaw to get em apart. I prefer to drop them in frozen to reduce contamination. The alcohol in your beer should be sufficient to stave off any wild bacteria.

I kept mine in for 10 days, but you shoud taste often for your own preference.

Thats it. Let me know how it goes. I can send you the beertools recipe if you really need it.