Satan's Broadsword
Bellwoods Brewery

Got this one from peensteen this past summer. Cheers, man!

From a 500ml bottle into a snifter
Spiced imperial stout with ancho chili, dulce de leche & lactose

APPEARANCE: Black pour yields a 2+ finger, looser looking, fizzy and foamy tan head with lousy retention. Head quickly fizzes down to a ring only. Jet black body with no carbonation evident. Ring vanishes and this one looks flat pretty much right away. Lack luster look.

SMELL: The ancho chilies are there with lactose sugar and caramel candy aromas as well. Decent strength on this one, but the caramel and ancho kind of clash.

TASTE: The Dulce de Leche obviously gives a strong caramel and toffee character up front, alongside flavors of lactose sugars, milk chocolate and a ending with a mild yet decent chili punch at the swallow. This one is really sweet. A bolder finish of caramel paste, reminiscent of Werther’s Original, milk sugars, some milk chocolate and light Ancho chilies lingering on the palate. The Dulce de Leche adds plenty of caramel and toffee past-like flavors that sort of clash with the spices from the chilies.

PALATE: Fuller body with lower levels of carbonation. A bit creamy on the palate, plenty of weight, goes down fine with a light chili burn at the swallow and finishes very sticky. Very sticky.

OVERALL: Unfortunately this one is not very enjoyable. Usually Bellwoods rocks my world but this one ruined it. Or something like that. The overly sticky-sweet character of the Werther’s Original Dulce de Leche just clash with the spicy character of the Ancho chili peppers, making it neither half of one or a dozen of the other. Or something like that. The combination just doesn’t work for me and I’d be surprised if it worked for any sane individual who breathes oxygen. Well, Bellwoods is arguably the best in the province, and maybe even the best in the country, but even Superman loses a battle here and there. Especially against Batman in armor. Yes. I said it. I watched the movie and loved the fight scene. Sue me. I dare you. I’ll just use the “everyone is entitled to their own opinion” get-out-of-idiocy-free card us North Americans love so much. Thanks again, peensteen!

 

 

 

 

Bottle from Phil

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a bright dark brown color foamy head with light retention and lacing. Aroma of roasted malt with black chocolates notes with subtle chiles notes is quite nice. Taste is a nice mix of roasted malt with loads of black chocolates offset by some sugar form the dulce and light spicy notes from the chiles. Body is full with OK carbonation and light warming alcohol notes are discernible. Well done for the style with good balance and good drinkability.

 

 

 

Dark brown color with red hues and some mocha foam. Aroma has milk chocolate with light smoky and umami notes, some green peppers and a hint of dark cherries. Taste is sweet with light smoked fruit notes and also smoked habanero peppers, chocolate with cherry liquor, really complex and tasty. Full bodied with soft carbonation. Really complex yet balanced and easy drinking.

This one pours a fairly dark black, with a small head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells quite sweet, with vanilla, lactose, sugary caramel, and chocolate syrupy, with peppery spice in the background.

This is very sweet and syrupy, and unfortunately overly so. It's very tasty, anyway, but just hard to drink a lot of. The peppers do an ok job of tamping down the heavy duty spice character, but I wish there was more of them. There's just gobs of creamy caramel all over this one, sweet syrupy chocolate, and lots of vanilla creamer.

This kind of syrupy, but pretty thick and chewy, with a normal level of carbonation.

This needed more peppers or something bitter to balance out the heavy sweetness of this. It's tasty, but slightly overwhelming.