Chilli Joe

[Grumpydev]

I want to brew a chilli beer for a friend's Birthday and I've put the recipe together this morning. The plan is for a fairly big (6.5% target, boosted it with some sugar, although may change my mind on that) smokey/toasty IPA, drop hopped with 3 different types of chilli to try and get some dark fruit sweetness, some smokey BBQness, and a decent amount of heat (he likes his heat!). I plan on tasting it in secondary a few times and possibly adding another Piquin if it needs more heat.

The guy, if you can't guess, is called Joe, and we always take the p**s out of him for constantly talking about the time he lived in Chile so the label is going to be "Chilli Joe.. He's been to Chile you know!"

Chilli Joe (Other Smoked Beer)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.064 (°P): 15.7
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol (ABV): 6.51 %
Bitterness (IBU): 42.3 (Tinseth)

74.75% Maris Otter Malt
8.31% Rauchmalt
6.64% Cane Sugar
6.64% Crystal 80
3.32% Torrified Wheat
0.33% Chocolate Malt

1 g/L Challenger (9.34% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
1.2 g/L East Kent Golding (4% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
0.9 g/L Target (12.17% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil)
1.2 g/L Fuggles (5.7% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Aroma)

0.4 g/L Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
2 Ancho Chilli @ 21 Days (Secondary)
2 Chipotle Smoked Chilli @ 21 Days (Secondary)
1 Piquin Chilli @ 21 Days (Secondary)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 60 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Danstar Nottingham

[beerlion]

I've never brewed a beer with chilli, but my first thought would be that the smoked malt might overpower the flavours (not the heat) from the chillies.

[Grumpydev]

If I was going for a fresh chilli flavour I'd definitely agree, but I'm aiming more for a smokey Tamarind Chipotle kind of flavour, which I think the smoked malt will compliment.