When the lovely Amy asked if I would make a guest appearance on the Eat More Heat Live webcast (they do it weekly, check them out here) to discuss spicy beers for their “Drink de Mayo” special on Tuesday 5/3, I was thrilled (and super nervous!). They have thousands of viewers weekly that tune in to see the Eat More Heat crew talk about anything spicy and this week we discussed spicy beers. James had collected a few gimmick-y beers and I brought in a surprise beer for the group to try.
Spicy Beer List: (in order of tasting)
Cave Creek Original C Chili Beer
Twisted Pine Billy’s Chilies Beer
Rogue Chipotle Ale
Mikkeller Chipotle Porter
Dogfish Head Theobroma
Just a few notes on the beers (watch the video for the rest!):
The Cave Creek had an actual hybrid grown serrano pepper in the beer, it was grown especially for this beer to be smaller to actually fit in the bottle, and it tasted horrible. The beer was essentially Bud Light with a pepper thrown in. I tried a bite of the pepper and the heat seemed like it had dispersed into the beer and wasn’t hot at all. The beer was quite spicy and not in a good way.
The Twisted Pine Billy’s Chilies was a better beer, less spicy than the Cave Creek, but the beer flavor was awful. I do believe the point of these beers is to destroy your palate with the spicy/pepper flavors so that you don’t notice that the beer sucks. Mission accomplished on that one.
The Rogue Chipotle Ale I have had before and didn’t like it then and didn’t like it on the show. It tastes like an ashtray… they used “smoked jalapenos” or chipotles, but it tasted like they used the ashes leftover from smoking the jalapenos. If there was any good beer flavor to be had it was masked by the overwhelming smoke flavors.
Mikkeller’s Chipotle Porter was definitely the best chile beer of the bunch (as far as actually tasting the chilies, Theobroma is a great beer but you can hardly taste any peppers) it has a great beer profile as the background for the chipotles. The beer isn’t too spicy but you can taste the peppers for sure. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Mikkeller anyway.
The final beer was the Dogfish Head Theobroma that I brought in for the guys, This was part of the scavenger hunt that Ben from Petrol Station put on last year. It was a 2009 vintage that was just sitting in my closet begging for an occasion to drink it. This beer is part of their “Ancient Ales” series and this recipe is from a piece of analyzed ancient Honduran pottery. It is brewed with Aztec cocoa powder and cocoa nibs from Askinosie Chocolate, honey, ancho chilies, and annatto, and believed to be the earliest alcoholic drink known to man. I love this beer, it is a little sweet, not too boozy (even at 9% ABV) but the chile flavor is lost in all of the other complex flavors. It did seem to be the favorite beer of the night, though. Success!
Oh, as an side, whatever you do, DO NOT try hot sauce from guys who get their kicks from trying the hottest shit they can find. Scorpion sauce – 1, Leslie – 0. I had an absolute blast and hope to make it back to the show for the next beer special they do! Thanks guys!
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May 8, 2011 at 11:16 pm
My old roommate and I formulated and made a smoked habanero imperial stout that clocked in around 11.5% ABV. I did the smoking and he did the brewing…it turned out completely awesome and hot as hell. I might try to redo it one of these days when I actually start brewing.
May 8, 2011 at 11:19 pm
That sounds badass! You know where to send me some when its ready :)