"A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure."
~ Czech Proverb
Browsing on BevMo.com the other day, I found California Brewery Six Rivers' Chili Pepper Ale. I'm always looking for interesting or new flavors and this one totally caught my eye. Nick made me pepper-infused vodka last year to make my Bloody Marys with, and I really do love anything spicy, so I had to try this brew. Tonight, a bunch of friends came over for our friend Laurie's birthday, and after a short chill, Laurie and I cracked this one open.
Six Rivers has a cool logo on their bottle caps, and the label was pretty interesting - I noticed that this ale won the silver medal in the Fruits & Vegetables beer category at the Great American Beer Festival, too:
After pouring, we noticed the distinct aroma of jalapeños in the beer. I was a little worried that it would have an artificial, kind of "imitation jalapeño" type flavor. The beer didn't have time to chill too much, so that may have been why the smell was so strong - it wasn't a bad thing, I just felt that "Chili Beer" might a pretty easy thing to mess up. We took a sip ... and it was GOOD.
Clean, fresh flavor, no fakey jalapeño extract taste; and then came the heat. It was fantastic! A nice, true pepper heat that filled the whole mouth and delivered that "kick" they talk about on the label - not for you if you don't like spicy stuff - they didn't wimp out on that heat, which was really great. This would be fantastic in a Bloody Beer, which is another favorite of mine ... but I couldn't bear to mix this wonderful find, tasting it for the first time. We savored the rest, sharing *tiny* sips with our friends. I will definitely be stocking up on more of this. Cheers!
Related Links:
SixRiversBrewery.com
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