Hot Shot IPA
Devils Backbone Brewing Company

Poured 12oz bottle into snifter glass. 6.2% abv

Appearance- Pours a dark amber. Two finger white head. Very clear.

Smell- Intense aroma of freshly cut jalapeno peppers. Stings the nostrils.

Taste- Grainy start with an increase of jalapeno peppers picked straight from the garden. Captures the pepper taste quite well. Hop character blends in well too with some citric grapefruit kick. Back and forth pepper grapefruit blend leading to a bitter finish.

Mouthfeel- Medium in body with active carbonation.

Overall- Captures all the flavor of a ripe green jalapeno and mixes that with hops. Interesting to say the least. Intense aroma in this beer! Will have you burping peppers.

 

 

 

 

 

Look, color(gold), lac fresh, unwashed jalapenos that deliver a great flavor. Flavor, not extreme heat make this beer working and head are nothing to brag about. Aroma is full of fresh jalapenos, very nice. Taste has a great amount of

Poured from 12oz bottle dated 5/31/16 into standard pint glass. Nice golden hue with healthy head on top that quickly dissipated to outer edge. Smelled heavily of jalapeno peppers with perhaps an underlying piney scent. Mild hoppiness on the front with jalapeno on the back end. Clean finish. I must admit that I fully expected it to be pretty hot and spicy by the aroma which it was not much to my relief. I can't say with any certainty whether I liked or disliked but it did have a nice look and smell.

 

12oz bottle poured into a snifter
Boned on 5/31/16

A- pours an amber/golden color with a small foamy white head that reduces to leave just a ring around the edge

S- smells primarily of jalapeños, with undertones of citrus and tropical hip aromas, specifically orange pre and mango

T- nice variety of tropical and citrus hop flavors up front, with notes of mango, melon, guava, tangerine & peach. The jalepeno flavor kicks in mid-palate and lasts to the finish, more citrusy fruit on the linger

M- medium body and carbonation, foamy mouthfeel with a score clean finish

O- judging by the aroma, was afraid this would be pretty hot, but that wasn't the case. Jalepeno is imparted in flavor, rather than heat, good beer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My second bottle of this one from the Family Beer Project variety pack that's out now. Bottling date is... I think that says 5/28/16, but I seem to have accidentally smudged off the lower half of the numbers so I'm not 100% sure. I know it was late May, though.

Anyway, on to the beer -- appearance-wise it is medium golden in color, almost perfectly clear, and with a lot of little rising bubbles coming up from the bottom. A somewhat small but very nice and fluffy head of white foam forms upon pouring and hangs around afterward, shrinking but not vanishing or even reducing itself to a thin layer on top. Very nice texture to the foam on top. Foam leaves some trails as the beer is drank, and doesn't seem to want to go anywhere anytime soon -- the head has shrunk a bit, but it's still pretty substantial even at the one-third-full mark, which is more than a lot of beers can say. Overall just a really nice-looking beer.

The smell is dominated with fresh jalapeño peppers -- like if I walked up to a bin of them in the produce section and took a whiff. There's also some noticeable presence of piney-type hops in the background, blending in with the "green-ness" of the peppers but definitely present.

The taste is also very pepper-focused, and very much tastes like fresh jalapeños. Piney hops are present in the flavor too, but -- like with the smell -- the peppers come out on top for the most part. They combine together to make a very earthy, green-tasting drink -- just like the first time I had this one, I'm honestly surprised at how well it works. Some heat is present but far from overwhelming, more of a background thing -- it's not like drinking a glass of hot sauce or anything along those lines, just a little tingly heat in the mouth after drinking that hangs around for a bit and then fades away. Burps are a bit hoppier rather than leaning in the peppery direction, interestingly. Not really picking up much in the way of malt flavors, maybe a teeny bit hiding off in the background? Peppers and hops definitely stand out much more. A bit of a lingering leafy/herbal hop bitterness building up as I'm getting past the halfway point of the glass, which blends in with some peppers to make it seem just a bit different from most IPAs even at that point.

Mouthfeel seems pretty nice. Light but not too light, pretty crisp feel to it, easily drinkable for sure. There's a slight bit of an oiliness that I assume is from the sheer amount of "this has spicy/bitter oils in it" ingredients (between the peppers and the hops used), I'm noticing that lingering a bit in the mouth after I'm about halfway through the glass.

Overall, I was surprised and impressed by this beer -- didn't think a hot-pepper IPA would work out very well (the combination just seemed like one that would clash to me at first glance) but it's turned out to be one of my favorites from this variety pack. It seems these beers might be a one-time thing (or possibly ones that could pop up on tap at the brewery again in the future even if not bottled again), so maybe I'll look into some of the other beers that combine hot peppers and hops and see if I can find another one I like as much -- or more!? -- than this one if I have a craving for another one after the variety packs leave the shelves.

 

First beer from the DB Family Adventure Variety 12pk. The initial smell is overwhelmingly peppery. More like green pepper than a spicy jalapeño. The taste is not as peppery as the smell would lead you to believe. Actually a nice tasting IPA with a dry, pepper-like aftertaste. I've had a few spicy IPAs and this beer is very mild in comparison. Actually not getting much heat at all. Overall, a good IPA. It's cool to taste a different take on the IPA style rather than the same ol' hop bombs that a lot of today's IPAs tend to lean towards.