a west coast-style pale ale brewed with estate-grown habanada and carolina reaper peppers and dry-hopped with citra, mosaic and el dorado
A true definition of patience, we began planning this beer in January of 2024. Knowing exactly what peppers we wanted to feature in a beer, the process started where most things do (well, at least for us) by ordering the seeds! As we don’t really have the best setup for starting pepper seeds so early, our good friends at Bluebird Farm started them for us. Once established, we transplanted all of the peppers in Nebo, North Carolina at our farmhouse brewery. In total, we had 100 pepper plants growing at our Whippoorwill Farm location in the summer of 2024.
Intentionally selecting the habanada (a heatless habanero) for it citrus-forward aroma and the carolina reaper for it’s depth of flavor and well, it’s insane level of heat, our careful pepper blending highlights the nuances of both varieties.
As the name suggests, we did not intend for this beer to be like the “one chip challenge”, even though around the brewery during the blending we joked about it being called the “one can challenge”. Using a highly aromatic and crushingly crisp west coast pale ale as the vehicle, the citrus and tropical-forward hops complement our pepper blend, which we really don’t think you should be afraid of.