Wynkoop Brewing Company Chile Beer - Circa 1992

While browsing through my collection of Chile Pepper magazines looking for recipes using beer, I stumbled across an article in the June 1992 issue by Pam Grout.  Pam profiled Russ Schehrer, then the head brewer of Wynkoop Brewing Company.  Russ came up with the recipe for using mild new Mexican green chiles.  She even provided the bare bones of the 150 gallon recipe (5 gallon quantities are in parenthesis.  You're welcome):

240 pounds English 2-row (8lb)
10 pounds Crystal Malt (5.3 oz)
10 pounds Amber Malt (5.3 oz)
1 pound Bullion hops (.53 oz)
1 pound Tettnang hops (.53 oz)
24 1/2 pound New Mexican green chiles, stems and seeds removed (.82 lbs)
lager yeast

So, there you go!  That's what the beer was like in 1992. I thought it would be fun to see if it is the same recipe today, so I headed over the the Wynkoop site and read this about Patty's Chile Beer:

A light German-style beer made with Anaheim chiles and smoked Ancho peppers. A 2006 Great American Beer Festival Bronze Medal Winner in the Fruit and Vegetable Beer category and a Wynkoop specialty.

Apparently not.

Last time I was at Wynkoops, Patty's wasn't on tap.  Later that year, I found myself in Dillon, Colorado, at the Dillon Dam Brewery sipping on their chile beer.  As I recall, the beer was darned good.  The chile wasn't hot, but that chile flavor acted a lot like hops, balancing the malt sweetness of the beer.

I don't know that I would want to brew a chile beer.  The last pint I had was good, but it was also the last pint I had.  I don't think I would be able to drink more than one or two at a time.

However, should I ever get the urge to brew a chile beer, at least I have a the basis of a recipe.  All I have to figure out is the hop schedule and where to put the chiles (though, I'm guessing in secondary).