I'm thinking of beer/pepper pairings. I think Fatalii with a light pilsner or a wheat beer. Chocolate hab or bhut with a smoked porter or stout. Maybe a ripe red serrano or Thai with an Amber ale. Myself, I crave the sweet milky taste of an Imperial Stout with a REALLY hot pepper such as a 7-pot or Scorpion. Or, maybe it is the 11% alcohol which helps take the pain away that I like.
Most likely it's the sweet that takes away the pain. Currently I'm limited, heat wise, to what I can find locally and lately that seems to be Orange Habs, Fresnos, Jalapenos and Serranos, Im using a combination of the Orange Habaneros and nice ripe Fresnos for this. So I can't really test out the Super Hots. I would love it if I could find some Aji Limons. I think that the lemon overtones they have would be great.
I considered 2 way of heating up the beer when I started.
1. Cut the peppers in half, add it to the beer. I figured it might take 30 + minutes for the beer to take on some of the peppers flavor and heat and wasnt sure how long it would be for the beer to become fully modified.
2. Cut pepper in half and place seeds, ribs and pepper minus the stem into a pot of water and boil till soft. Then into the blender making a puree.
I went with the second one. To make the test beer I add 2 Tbs puree to 1 Cup of the beer. I think this method will give me a more accurate representation across all styles of beer.
I found with the Pilsner that all I tasted was the pepper. No Beer flavor at all and I want that flavor to come through. The dark was a Porter and while it might have been good if I'd used some Frostbite to heat is up, when the sweet malty flavor of the beer was combined with the flavor of the peppers it started a real war of flavors and attacked the taste buds with a full on frontal assault.
After last nights testing I think that its going to wind up being a dryer beer rather than a sweeter one. The Pale Ale was really good. There was the great flavor of the beer upfront with the pepper flavor adding a new interesting element to the flavor profile of the Cascade hops that were used in the beer. Defiantly going to be a contender.
Interesting. I think a very sharp-flavored IPA might complement hot sauce more, especially after you give it a fair bit of cooking. I agree to skip a pilsner. Keep us updated on your progress; I am interested to see what you come up with.
Saranac makes a caramel porter that I used to really like...I wonder if that could be integrated into a sauce...
I did decide to pick up an Imperial IPA, one of my favorites in fact, to try. It was just my initial impression of how the combination of tastes might be that I was referring to. Sorry, should have been clearer. As for the Carmel Porter you mention it might give some interesting flavor undertones to like a desert sauce. Ill have to think on that a bit.
Did you try Guiness beer? In my mind, that seems like another good base for a beer sauce.
Trying to stay away from talking brands and keeping to styles of beers. If I say Im using Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA to make my sauce and that its what gives it that special something then I would be limited to using only that beer to make it where as I can say Im using an English Bitter and then I can find any English Bitter to use and be darn close to the original flavor profile. That said I am testing a couple of stouts.
Last thing is I am keeping in mind that on THP if you dont post pictures it didnt happen. Im going to post all test pics at one time. So after test day 3 youll be able to see all.
Cheers,
