OVHA Chat

did something pretty cool the other day. was challenged with 2 mystery ingredients to make a brew which happend to be habanero and Rasberry. Going with no directions and just the idea this is what I did.


1. crushed a wheat grain added to my grain bag
2. sliced 3 habanero peppers and extracted seeds
3. added sliced habanero to grain bag
4. Heated 3 gallons of water to 155 degrees and added the bag
5. seeped grains for approx 30 minutes at 155
6. added 3.3 pounds of light LME and stirred in off the burner
7. discarded the grains but kept the habanero off to the side
8. rolled to a gentle boil and added Cascade hops
9. boiled in the hops in my bag for 45 minutes
10. added back the habanero and remaining cascade hops for last 10 minutes of boil
11. added 1 lb of dry malt and desolved in.
12. cooled wort to 70 degrees and put in primary fermenting bucket
13. Added 4 oz of Brewers best Rasberry Extract and stirred in
14. added water to bring to 5 gallons stirred again
15. Pitched my Ale Yeast and gently stirred
Just wanting to see if anyone likes or dislikes this idea but keep in mind it was a challenge.
2 days in the fermenter and stopped bubbling and added 1 cup of corn sugar as i would like to see this fully ferment. What do you think?

Love fruit beers but you can not replace real fruit. Extracts just can't get me to my happy place.

Now Im not sure what your grain bill looked like, to me it sounds like you're doing a partial mash, but I would mash at 155 for at least an hour in order to get more maltose from the grain and then perhaps you wouldnt have to add as much DME, LME, and corn sugar. Also the sparge is in important process in which the water is heated to around 170 in order to rinse the maltose sugars from the grain you may have just forgot to include that in your description.. I dont think you would want to add the habenro during the mash process either but sometime during the boil, the longer it boils the stronger the spice will be, I would probably add it between the last 5-10 minutes of the boil.. I also wouldnt add the rasberry flavoring into the primary fermenter but into the secondary a few days before botteling. Im not sure why you would add a cup of corn sugar to the fermenter there should be plenty of fermentables in there already, even tho it has stopped bubbeling it is still fermenting.. Did you take gravity readings? Id like to know what the OG was. Everyone does things differently though.. Im a big fan of spice and pepper beers, and this sounds appealing to me, would love to try it! Let us know how it turns out!

will let you know. I am as curious as you are how it will turn out. First attempt at something like this and scheduled to bottle the 19th after 2ndary fermentation. worst case scenerio is that I lost $30 in this experiment. may keep it a little longer in 2ndary. took a gravity reading at 1.20 initial and will do one again Sunday to see how it is doing.

2nd day in the secondary fermentation carboy. Took a gravity ready of 1.20 and by the smell it has a hint of rasberry which i was hoping for. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

The Habanero Rasberry Ale was tested last night and was a hit! Really impressed and will do it again!

great! don't forget to bring it to the meeting wednesday at Turonis!