[rodwha]

I made another using habaneros. My first impressions were intriguing with a unique taste as I had used a little brown sugar as I’ve liked what it added in a different beer. However I had found I was short on cane sugar for priming and so used more brown sugar, and what I noticed about 2/3 of the way through it it became more of a brown ale to me and less impressive.

My 8 gal Chinese pot that actually only holds about 7 limits me to mashing about 12 lbs of grains so stronger beers have to be partial mashes. This is what I did for a 5.25 gal batch:

7 lbs pale ale malt
3 lbs light LME (FO)
1.5 lbs white wheat
0.75 lb C-90
0.25 lb brown sugar (FO)
3 oz Midnight Wheat
0.25 lb light DME (starter)
0.5 oz Centennial @ FWH
1.75 oz Centennial @ 21 mins
1 oz Centennial @ Whirlpool
18 habaneros in 10 oz 50/50 Everclear
US-05

I have a hard time picking out the taste of the hops and the taste of the habaneros. It’s almost as they’ve melded into a different flavor, which isn’t bad.

I’ve figured I’d drop the brown sugar and Midnight Wheat and combine C-60 and C-90 for the color (dropped to 15 SRM from 19). I also figured I’d use 1/2 oz of Warrior for bittering and use 2 oz for both flavoring and a whirlpool getting me closer to 100 IBUs up from 66. But I’d like to hear of what others are doing with their Strong Ale and maybe ideas that would play well with habaneros coupled with a hop they feel would compliment this.

Oh, to clarify, the habaneros were homegrown and not as hot as they usually are. Started with 10 and added the other & and it’s not as hot as I hoped (why I was aiming for an 8+% ale), but still very much present with the 5 guys I shared it with all feeling it was about perfect, not being overwhelming.

[rodwha]

Anybody?