Dark and Picante
Beyond the Pale Brewing Company in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦
Stout - Pastry / Flavoured - Imperial Regular|
Score
6.87
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Mexican Chocolate Cake Imperial Stout
Dark & Picante is our decadent 8.5% Imperial Mexican Cake Stout. Full of Cacao, cinnamon, vanilla & scotch bonnet peppers. This beer is rich, delicious and has a gentle building heat. You have been warned.
Dark & Picante is our decadent 8.5% Imperial Mexican Cake Stout. Full of Cacao, cinnamon, vanilla & scotch bonnet peppers. This beer is rich, delicious and has a gentle building heat. You have been warned.
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6.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6.5
Texture 6
Overall 6
12oz @ SF shared with almost full gang (missing two biggest guys only).
Aroma: cinnamon, some chocolate.
Taste: spicy, roasty, and thin.
Overall: meh.
Aroma: cinnamon, some chocolate.
Taste: spicy, roasty, and thin.
Overall: meh.
Tried
from Can
on 06 Feb 2026
at 04:41
7.3/10
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Appearance 7
Aroma 7
Flavor 7.5
Texture 7
Overall 7.5
Dark brown. The aroma has some fruit from the scotch bonnet, with a bit of vanilla on there as well. On the palate, it's got some dry chocolatey base, a bit of vanilla, and the chile comes through. I'll say this - the scotch bonnet character is actually good. It doesn't fit with the beer, and the base is a bit on the dry side to carry these sorts of adjuncts, but the scotch bonnet is good.
Tried
from Can
on 06 Feb 2026
at 04:39
5.3/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5.5
Flavor 5
Texture 5
Overall 5
355mL can, pours black with a small tan head. Aroma has some cinnamon, low-quality chili, and cocoa, with some a rather flimsy toasted malt base. Flavour is spicy as hell, with cocoa and cinnamon coming in second. It has a weird frothy, too-highly-carbonated mouthfeel. Intense in spiciness, but it’s actually pretty flimsy in body and depth. This is a pretty dumb creation.
Tried
from Can
on 06 Feb 2026
at 04:37
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Poured from 355mL can (pkg Dec 30, 2024). Very dark brown with small beige head. Chocolate malt, lingering scotch bonnet pepper, thin-med body, average.
Tried
from Can
at
Beyond the Pale Brewing Co.
on 06 Feb 2026
at 04:34
5.5/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 5.5
Flavor 5.5
Texture 5
Overall 5.5
355mL can. Pours very dark brown with a beige head. Lots of cinnamon and hot peppers on the nose. Flavour has dark chocolate, cinnamon and a ton of hot peppers. Very little malt depth and the peppers almost immediately dominates the palate. No real depth of flavour. Pretty disappointing.
Tried
from Can
on 06 Feb 2026
at 00:41
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Out of the bottle, a low tan head on a deep brown body. The nose is musty chocolate and roasted malt with some sweetness. The chocolate and pepper heat lead the taste profile. Notes of the cinnamon and vanilla mingle with the dominant flavours. Chocolate fudge and sweet ripe berries are down there somewhere as well. The peppers are a bit sharp, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Nice density, smooth and slightly sticky. Very solid offering.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 Sep 2025
at 20:17
7.4/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Nice roasty Imperial stout, with dark coffee, and hints of soy. The hot peppers are hard to find, there are hints if green pepper, a hit of raw veggies, with a sharp herbal note. But there is no heat. Medium bitter, roast, soy finish.
Tried
on 28 Feb 2025
at 06:45
7.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle at beerbistro.
Tried
from Bottle
on 24 Aug 2022
at 21:41
7.6/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Dark brown colour, kind of black with hardly any copper fineline highlights. Beautiful creamy, frothy, very long lasting, mocha-coloured head with full creamy lacing. Roasted malts at first with chocolate notes and hints of vanilla. Then, the hot spices arrive showing a peppery side. The taste shows the roasted malts and mild cocoa at first, with the vanilla in the middle. Then, nice mild heat builds-up in the finish. The Scotch Bonnet Peppers do take a little more space in this one. A very nice Spicy Imperial Stout.
Tried
on 01 Feb 2019
at 02:23
7.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7
A deep dark stout with a thin dark brown head. In aroma, bitter chocolate with coffee grind, musty character, herbaceous character, chili paste, very nice. In mouth, a nice bitter chocolate with coffee grind, grassy hops, light chili hotness, alcohol warmth, dark fruits, very nice. On tap at brewery.
Tried
from Draft
on 23 Jan 2019
at 22:04