Anyone have any experience with roasted (bell or other) peppers?
What I’m looking for is the meaty, sweet-roasted flavour of freshly roasted peppers to complement an imperial stout already spiced with (very) hot peppers in the boil.
Racking to freshly roasted bell peppers seems like an idea, but I worried that
they would impart vegetable flavours (ratatouille stout doesn’t sound like anything anyone besides me would want to drink)
roast peppers exude an oily juice which I fear is a real head-killer
Not bell peppers but I do make a beer with hatch green chiles which are not quite as sweet and vegetal as bell peppers but definitely imparts some (pleasant) vegetable-pepper character. I use a blend of fresh and roasted. No problems with head retention. If you dry roast the peppers in the oven or on a grill you aren’t getting any more oil out of the peppers than what is already in them.
I would encourage you to go light on the peppers and check after a few days and every day after to avoid getting too much vegetal flavor for your beer. I’d probably also only try it out on a portion of the batch first.
Bell peppers to me don’t have much pepper flavor. Why not try some Poblanos? You can roast them, skin them and add to the secondary with no deterrent to head retention.