[scottcberens]

Hi all!  My homebrew club is doing an Iron Brewer Competition and I have to brew a beer with Peppercorns and London Ale yeast.  I have never used peppercorns before so any advice on when to use those in the boil and/or secondary would be great! 

Here is the grain bill we all have to use:
10 lbs golden promise
1.5 lbs rye malt
1 lb munich malt
0.5 lb caramel 90L

Yeast:  London Ale WLP013

Hops:  Thinking of Warrior for bittering and a late additions of some citrus hops such as citra, mosaic, falconers flight or zythos.

I was thinking adding some peppercorn at the end of the boil (maybe 5 mins) and possibly some in the secondary.  I don't want anything too peppery and undrinkable...  and i'm not sure how much to use. 

[tschmidlin]

There are two ways I would approach this - either put them in secondary or make a tincture and dose the keg.  I can't think of a beer I have made with spices in the boil that I thought was really good, even for just 5 minutes.

For secondary (or in the keg), put them in a bag (I would use about an ounce of whole peppercorns) and taste it daily until you like the flavor, then pull the bag out.

For a tincture, soak an ounce of peppercorns in six ounces of vodka for three days or so, then strain them out.  Does that in the keg to taste.

[hopfenundmalz]

This is a great one. The base beer looks close to yours.

By Mike Bardallis.
http://2cicerones.blogspot.com/2011/11/brew-day-batch-352-rye-peppercorn-pale.html?m=1

[majorvices]

This is a great one. The base beer looks close to yours.

By Mike Bardallis.
http://2cicerones.blogspot.com/2011/11/brew-day-batch-352-rye-peppercorn-pale.html?m=1

I like the look of that but am thinking I would sub out the special b for a 65 l crystal. Have you brewed it with the special b?

[hopfenundmalz]

This is a great one. The base beer looks close to yours.

By Mike Bardallis.
http://2cicerones.blogspot.com/2011/11/brew-day-batch-352-rye-peppercorn-pale.html?m=1

I like the look of that but am thinking I would sub out the special b for a 65 l crystal. Have you brewed it with the special b?

I have not brewed it, but have had more than a few times at Mike's as he wrote that recipe. Good stuff.