Imperial Chipotle Amber Ale

Had some free time this weekend between research, baby stuff, and the Wild Yeast Project so I decided to brew up some beer. I got the idea for this brew from trying a phenomenal chile beer from the Brew York meetup. Joe Postma, who competed in Iron Brewer brewed a Ancho chile beer that was out of this world. Good malty backbone, sessionable, but packed a very mellow heat that was very satisfying.

I’ve decided to take up the cause and brew a chile beer as well. My interpretation will be a bit different and I will use dried chipotle peppers. I enjoy the burn from these peppers and the earthy/smokey flavors when used in subtle amounts. The base beer will be amber ale of moderate strength with a subdued hop character. A picture of my brewday is below, but forgive the quality. The iPhone 4 camera doesn’t hold a candle to my D90.

Here is the recipe for 5 gallons:

  • 10 pounds of American 2-Row (Briess)
  • 4 pounds of Munich Malt – 10L (Briess)
  • 2 pounds of Amber Malt (Briess)
  • 1 pound of Carafoam (Weyerman)
Mash in with 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain at 151°F and hold for conversion for 60 minutes. Mashout at 168°F for ten minutes and batch sparge as usual. Collected 7 gallons of 1.054 wort and boiled off to reach expected target volume of 5.5 gallons.
  • 1 oz Centennial at 60 minutes
  • 1/2 tsp of Wyeast nutrient at 15 minutes
  • 1 Whirlfloc tablet at 15 minutes
  • 0.5 – 1.0 oz of pureed Chipotle chiles
For the chiles, I rehydrated in water and pureed 3 peppers in 3 ounces of water. Plan to add slowly to the boil to judge the relative heat content. Chilled wort to 64°F, oxygenated for one minute with pure O2 and pitched about 380 billion cells of WYeast 1056 (Chico strain) that I grew up in the lab.

1 Comment

Filed under Imperial Chipotle Amber Ale, Recipes

One Response to Imperial Chipotle Amber Ale

  1. Pingback: Homebrew Review: Imperial Chipotle Amber Ale | Brew Science – Homebrewing Blog

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