Serrano Pepper Ale
St. Croix Brewing Company, LLC

From the Between the Bluffs Beer Fest: Had another sample of this beer which has evolved sideways over the years. Not better or worse than before, just different. Dark amber, minimal head, no lace. Slight hint of peppers in the nose and flavor. Unremarkable. Almost mistook it for the maple version. Ha!

Originally reviewed April 9, 2005. On tap at the Gitchee Gumee Brewfest 2005. The peppers in this beer are just bad. No more of this. That tangy vinegar pepper aroma and flavor overwhelms all other qualites and makes me want to spit. The color looks sick, with a green and red amalgam of vomit. No, just no.

This is going to be compared vs. the only other representative I have had form the style, Rogue's Chipotle Ale. Looks much like a pale ale in color and head, copper color with a small white head. Smell is slight carmel sweetness, with larger amount of what you could possibly construe as peppers, almost a weird musty aroma. Taste is also not very peppery just a woody wet paper bag funk that is not very pleasant. Yet not anything hot. Mouthfeel is ok, but this a pretty piss-poor pepper beer if hot is what you are going for. Ho-hum.

Turbid pale orange hue, with animated papper particulates. Cream white, one fingered persistent head leaves loose lace. Vegetal, pepper flesh sweetness upfront in aroma. Secondary are toasty, perhaps Vienna malt notes, light toffee undertones and trace, pure pepper heat. Incipient in flavor is sweet rush of medium lovibond caramel with a butterscotch twang. Serrano flavor ensues, and is akin to cooked green bell pepper. Augmenting slowly is a drying capsaicin heat, which is moderate and supplementary to the meager hop bitterness, which on its own would've left too much residual sweetness. Toasty, even slightly caramelized nut notes abound, almost as if a Vienna lager was used as a base. Unforunately although the pepper heat works, the vegetal pepper flavor detracts from the malt profile. Moderate in body, with a firmly dextrinous mouthfeel. Finishes with a lingering, pleasantly warm toffee and pepper heat balance. An interesting brew that doesn't quite bring it all together. Easily the most malt driven pepper brew I've encountered. With more capsaicin heat and less "cooked pepper" flavor this would be more desirable. It tastes like they added peppers to the boil, rather than to the conditioning tank or secondary fermenter, which I prefer. Regardless, it's a eccentric brew. Thanks to Mr. Fmonk for the opportunity.

The beer pours a beclouded rusty red color with the head important in size and semi-creamy in texture, the color a winsome light tan, lots of dross both on the bottom of the bottle and in suspension. I decanted it all; do not want to miss a bit of that pepper, and the resultant lace a silky veil to hide the glass. Nose has a peppery spiciness as one would expect from its namesake, but also delightful malted grain sweetness, crisp and pleasing to the senses, start is malt laden and somewhat sweet, the top is middling in feel to the palate. Finish is prickly, from the peppers and the acidity, hops are middling in their spiciness, but the pepper wins the day as it bites your tongue, a fine representative to the style.

I first had this beer at a local festival many years ago, and acknowledged it's existence as quite the curiousity. The brewer's (it's contract produced by Schell now, so that name doesn't apply) other offering is a Maple Ale, more suitable for a quirky regional product. Why a pepper beer from Minnesota? No matter, let's drink the damned thing...
Appearance: pours a hazy, smokey orange, with flecks flitting about (is it an old bottle to blame? This stuff doesn't exactly fly off the shelves!), with a finely fluffy, creamy white head, oddly speckled with brown spots.
Aroma: DAY-YUM, that's pepper, y'all! Hot, spicy, intense, and the very perfect picture of the vegetable whose name it bears. They set out to make a serrano pepper ale, damned if it don't stand up tall in the nose and shake your hand! As Buster Poindexter would say, "Hot! Hot! Hot!" All pepper, nothing else, and now to drink, but first, to retrieve a helpful glass of cool, cold water...just in case.
There's the pepper flavor, right off, coating the tongue, there's the heat, but it's only so strong. Hops are mild, malt is quite adequate supply, and the heat begins to intensify...I spoke too soon.
They certainly chose the right approach for this brew, for the base ale stands up quite well and ably matches the overpowering flavor of the pepper. For those keeping track at home, the worst Chili Beer is Crazy Ed's Cave Creek, and the Best is Rogue Mexicali...St. Croix falls safely on the good side.
Taste resides well in this brew, and it overcomes the handicap of being a novelty or experimental beer. I like this beer, and am glad it exists, but you won't find me tossing it back too much. The heat interferes with the thirst-quenching qualities you yearn for, and I'm more inclined to match spicy food with a satiating IPA, rather than a scorcher like this.
Still, a solid version of the style, such as it is

Pours with virtually no head. Color is amber and basically clear. Aroma is mostly of vegetables with the pepper the strongest. Also in background is some sweetness and malt. Taste is mostly of pepper with some spicey pepper hotness and again a background of malt. This is interesting in its own way and certainly better than the other offering by this company. Mouthfeel is medium without some carbonation. I rate this a little high for the brewer's (financial backer's?) willingness to put this on the market. There is some creativity in the effort and I appreciate that. Has a summer quality to it and may actually complement some barbeque type food.