I did a review of this for The Hot Zone Online and am coping it here...once again...for your viewing pleasure!
Matthew Wood (cheezydemon) sent me one of his home brewed beers for review purposes just recently and now comes the time to do it. This specialty American Pale Ale has a nice little treat to it, it has two different types of roasted peppers in it!!!
Matthew Wood’s Habanero Ale Ingredients: 8 lbs of pale 2 row, 2 pounds of Belgian Pilsen, 1 oz Cascade Hops, 1 oz Bullion hops, 6 orange Habaneros/ripe/roasted , 1 Guajillo/green/roasted, White Labs "Irish ale" yeast.
Let me tell you, this is one cloudy beer. Its appearance is reminiscing of most hefeweizens that I’ve had and the taste comes close to matching that style as well. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s continue with the appearance. It’s golden in color and pours to a very small head that dissipates quickly.
Now, we take a sip. A slight bitterness appears which is expected of APA’s but the main flavor is lemon/citrus (also a characteristic of hef’s…hefeweizens that is, not Hugh Heffner). Unfortunately this has an overwhelming citrus flavor that detracts from the slight hop taste. It actually reminds me of the fresh lemons that I used to get out of the lemon tree in my backyard in Los Angeles (to be more specific, it was a Lemorange tree…lemon orange hybrid that was primarily lemon).
The beer tastes surprisingly fresh but the thing that makes this beer, for me, is the heat. He mainly used Habaneros and boy does it show. Right from the first taste I new that this was a “sipping beer”. You don’t slam this for fear of blowing out your tongue. The heat is right up front and fades fairly quickly but at the same time builds with every sip. This is officially the hottest beer I’ve had to date.
What really starts to get you is the lip burn. Now, even with a wings slathered in sauce, I make it a point to try to get the sauce on my tongue and not my lips. This is a trick of the trade that I’ve had to train myself so that I can now unconsciously do it to avoid that section of burn. With this beer, you can’t do it, you just can’t avoid getting it on your lips. There in lies the fun burn. I love the back of the throat and front of the tongue burn that beer provides but the cue de graw is the lip burn. Extremely intense.
Unfortunately on the beer side of things, I would say the recipe needs some tweaking. Introduce some more prominent flavors, reduce the citrus taste and it will be a really good home brew. But when it comes to the peppers….wow. A+, spot on!
Taste: 5.4, Heat: 10 (for a beer)
Matthew Wood (cheezydemon) sent me one of his home brewed beers for review purposes just recently and now comes the time to do it. This specialty American Pale Ale has a nice little treat to it, it has two different types of roasted peppers in it!!!
Matthew Wood’s Habanero Ale Ingredients: 8 lbs of pale 2 row, 2 pounds of Belgian Pilsen, 1 oz Cascade Hops, 1 oz Bullion hops, 6 orange Habaneros/ripe/roasted , 1 Guajillo/green/roasted, White Labs "Irish ale" yeast.
Let me tell you, this is one cloudy beer. Its appearance is reminiscing of most hefeweizens that I’ve had and the taste comes close to matching that style as well. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s continue with the appearance. It’s golden in color and pours to a very small head that dissipates quickly.
Now, we take a sip. A slight bitterness appears which is expected of APA’s but the main flavor is lemon/citrus (also a characteristic of hef’s…hefeweizens that is, not Hugh Heffner). Unfortunately this has an overwhelming citrus flavor that detracts from the slight hop taste. It actually reminds me of the fresh lemons that I used to get out of the lemon tree in my backyard in Los Angeles (to be more specific, it was a Lemorange tree…lemon orange hybrid that was primarily lemon).
The beer tastes surprisingly fresh but the thing that makes this beer, for me, is the heat. He mainly used Habaneros and boy does it show. Right from the first taste I new that this was a “sipping beer”. You don’t slam this for fear of blowing out your tongue. The heat is right up front and fades fairly quickly but at the same time builds with every sip. This is officially the hottest beer I’ve had to date.
What really starts to get you is the lip burn. Now, even with a wings slathered in sauce, I make it a point to try to get the sauce on my tongue and not my lips. This is a trick of the trade that I’ve had to train myself so that I can now unconsciously do it to avoid that section of burn. With this beer, you can’t do it, you just can’t avoid getting it on your lips. There in lies the fun burn. I love the back of the throat and front of the tongue burn that beer provides but the cue de graw is the lip burn. Extremely intense.
Unfortunately on the beer side of things, I would say the recipe needs some tweaking. Introduce some more prominent flavors, reduce the citrus taste and it will be a really good home brew. But when it comes to the peppers….wow. A+, spot on!
Taste: 5.4, Heat: 10 (for a beer)
It's definitely the best stout that I have ever had the pleasure to drink!
