Sample from tap at the brewpub. Pours slight hazy orange. Clear ginger aroma, mild honey aroma. Flavour is mellow sweet with a nice blend between honey and ginger. Finish soft ginger spiced.

Sample from tap at the brewpub. Pours hazy and deep orange with little. Aroma is deep wineous, slight rubber note, a bit of dried fruit and a bit fruity. Flavour is very sweet with alcohol sticking out. Slight citric bitter in the finish. Interesting different barley wine.

Sample from tap at the brewpub. Pours pitch black with chocolate creamy brown head, lastin for about 30 min. Aroma is coffee and with clear burbon like alcohol presence. Flavour is alcohol dominated, almost taking out the coffee/roasted malt notes. Dry with raisin notes. Alcohol dry finish. Too alcoholic for my taste.

9oz glass @ brewpub. Thick head and copper color. Aroma is resiny hop with bittered caramel. Overall I would describe it as a sweet and bitter hop juice. Taste starts with a grapefruit and tropical fruits hoppiness and leads to a candy sweet caramel maltiness. Finishes off with a long sweet bitterness. Bitterness is strong and always present but never overwhelming. This beer is definitely returnable.

Draught pints at Redbones porter and stout dinner on 3/12/07 and again on 3/16/07 at Redbones
Dark cocoa-flecked tan head is medium in size and shows strong retention for a chili beer. Dark brown body has a medium-high clarity and a chestnut-mahogany hue on the edges. Little/no lacing, probably inhibited by the chili oil.
Not much chili in the nose, and only a dry pinch of baker’s chocolate powderiness. But more fudgey chocolate notes emerge, especially with warming. A bit of vanilla and slight caramel malt sweetness, but overall a rather reserved, somewhat weak aroma, though that seems to be the norm with many spiced/peppered dark ales.
Flavor is a whole nother story, though. Dry chocolate with a pleasing chewiness and light fudge character. Bit of vanilla cream sweetness and slight roastiness emerging, as the chili finally comes on in the finish. Very spicy, with a slow burn that builds up on the palate, while all the while the chocolate lightly complements the heat. Light caramel and more stickiness, with low carbonation. Delicious and the best chili beer I’ve had easily. Think of it as a double IPA that is balanced through the middle but with tons of hop bitterness on the finish.

Draught pint at CBC on 3/11/07
Pale golden color is augmented by copper-peach notes from the carapils and aromatic malts. High clarity with a small layer of off-white head that fades readily to partial-cover, leaving little/no lacing.
Sweet, lightly fruity aromatic malts in the nose seem to be about on par with the hops in strength. Lightly juicy, rather floral and with a light undercurrant of orange blossom honey and spicy herbs. Very soft on the nose, overall, and growing more floral as it warms, with strong honey notes from the malt emerging as well. Moderate acidity on the finish seems somewhat out of place, however. Not a huge fan of ahtanum hops....
Honey flavors from the malt and yet a coarse graininess from the two row as well. Dry, very well-attenuated, but with sticky honey and bready acidity building on the finish. Lots of zesty nectarine, lime and light tangerine notes from the hops, but they seem weighted down by some excess hop oils and the acidity. Low to medium carbonation, no alcohol noted.

Clear golden with no head - earthy, herbal aroma, with background hints of raw grain - fairly dry and somewhat tart up front, followed by a tiny bit of sweetness, a fairly strong herbal character (which mingles with a medium hop profile), some saffron and mild grain - finishes with a little more tartness - not bad - seems like it was designed to have a somewhat weaker character so it would go well with many different types of food.

Draught pint at CBC on 2/4/07
Not sure yet how this is made (if the beer has pepper extract added, if the peppers are thrown in to the serving tank, if the peppers are thrown in to secondary, etc…) but I’ll ask Will and get a better commercial description on here.
Same color as the Winter Ale, since the peppers dont change the color. A light cherry-red with stronger grayish-brown overtones. Off-white/beige head is small and retention is somewhat impaired by the peppers.
Nothing in the nose that is significantly different from the winter ale, though the hops seem more muted, that’s for sure. They probably did a lower IBU batch of winter ale so that they could highlight the pepper flavor better. Same sweet, dry caramel malts, though some spiciness does emerge on the finish. But it’s extremely subtle and could be mistaken for white pepper or even a hop note. Aroma is rather reserved overall, as well.
Hops and dry maltiness, bit of crusty bread, light fruitiness and some soft caramel maltiness for the flavor. A tingle begins about halfway through, on the palate, and slowly grows stronger until you have a capsaicin burn on the finish, generating some controlled heat and actually a nice combo of flavors with the light caramel malt sweetness. I have a very high tolerance to spiciness, but this still didnt seem overdone at all and I was actually left a little disappointed that it wasnt more burning. I liked it alot, but then, I also really like chili beers.