Chipotle Wheat
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

Sunflower gold with a particulate haze. Multiple larger floaters led me to believe that I was seeing 'pepper dust' rather than yeast. Chipotle Wheat had exactly the dirty, junked-up look that I like. Too bad the head wasn't equally as attractive. It was small, harsh and unsticky. Since it didn't look very good, I wasn't sad to see it depart quickly. Pepper juice must be a foam killer.

The nose wasn't bad, there just wasn't much of it. The beer smelled of fresh grain and fresh garden peppers. There was a brightness to the aroma, but no hint of pungency or pickled pepperness or of the incredible heat that was soon to assault my mucous membranes.

The first sip was an experience. In tandem with the beer--yet like a thing apart--flowed pure liquid fire, Promethean in its terrible majesty, lighting my lips, mouth, tongue and throat ablaze with a burning, smoldering heat that was to last for the life of the pint and beyond. You say you like a little sizzle with your chile beer? Chipotle Wheat will test your pain threshold, and then some, muchacho.

The amazing thing was that even with the unholy burn, my tastebuds never became numbed; I was able to taste the last sip with the same amount of immediacy as the first. Not only was this beer hot, but it was bursting with chile pepper flavor; more so than any chile beer that I've had yet. The taste score reflects my thoughts on that pepper flavor.

There was no way that I could have identified the base beer as a wheat, there were just too many BTUs flying around. I was, however, able to appreciate a well-malted, sweet-and-sour undercurrent to all the fire and brimstone happening up top. The drinkability score reflects the difficulty in enjoying a beer with such a capacity to cause pain. If the heat had been halved, keeping the pepper flavor intact, Chipotle Wheat would have been a much better beer.

The mouthfeel was solidly medium and incredibly soft (there's the wheat!), which was an interesting contrast with the flavor profile. The finish was unwavering and slightly sticky, characteristics that I've come to expect and to enjoy in beer from this brewpub. The cask carbonation was right on the money... absolutely kitten-soft purrr-fect.

I use Tabasco and pickled Jalapeno slices on all manner of foods. Even though my tolerance is far below that of many real 'heat nuts', I can hold my own. Chipotle Wheat, though, brought me to my knees without breaking a sweat. It was an experience that I won't soon forget, but I'm not interested in another pint until wdmrock tames the fire a bit.