Thor's Smoked Hot Pepper Imperial Porter
HammerHeart Brewing Company

16oz undated can poured into a bulbous pint glass shows a headless near black, maple brown body leaving scant lacing.

Fruity hot pepper and smoke (luckily short of rubberband, that I sometimes get in smoked beers) dominate the aroma.

Flavors match with heavy roasted malts to compliment. Peppers are fruity up front before enveloping the palate with spicy heat that eases down the throat before dissipating.

Mouthfeel is creamy with a wet finish.

Overall a pleasant Porter with a smoked hot pepper treatment. Well done!

Got from someone at the GreenBay July 2025 meetup. 16 ounce can into tulip glass, no can dating. Pours opaque pitch black color with a 1-2 finger dense and fluffy tan head with fantastic retention, that reduces to a small cap that lasts. Nice spotty soapy lacing on the glass, some light streaming carbonation. Aromas of big dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, toast, dark bread/crust, nuttiness, smoke, charcoal, reaper/scorpion chili peppers, herbal, grass, peppercorn, pine. Taste follows with huge dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, toast, dark bread/crust, caramel, nuttiness, smoke, charcoal, reaper/scorpion chili peppers, herbal, grass, peppercorn, pine. Light-medium pine, herbal, woody, charred bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-plus body. Big creamy/silky malts, with some sticky hop and chalky roast in the mouthfeel. Lingering hop/roasted dryness, no cloying/acrid/astringency. Very mild lingering warmth of 9.6%, and chili pepper heat. Truly an incredible experimental imperial porter as they were able to make this feel very classic on the American smoked porter style, while adding pepper flavors with basically no heat. Truly top tier. Super similar to the Stone ones on malt character.

Undated can courtesy of the honorable Ozzlylizard.
Absolutely gorgeous pour. The darkest shade of brown nearest black. A divine head. A finger so at first, cross between milky and sudsy, mocha hued. Lacing is downright lovely with a soapy, dense ring that leaves gossamer curtains.
Nose is a nuanced melange of char, vegetal, dark fruit, and dark roasted brown bread. But this all moves around in a complex dance.
Flavor mainly presents a smooth, greenish delivery of chili peppers, some charred malts, and a mild earthy note. Does not come off with as much complexity that the aromas foreshadowed but still quite nice.
Mouthfeel is hefty for style. A smooth, warm wash throughout the mouth. There is an almost silky aspect to this. Earth bitterness shares some of the char and pepper on the end.
Overall, a hefty porter that demands respect.

 

Thor’s Imperial Hot Pepper Porter from HammerHeart. Four pack of 16 fl oz cans. Picked up at France 44 in Minneapolis, MN, 17/07/25. $ 16.72 (Including tax)/$ 0.26 per fl oz. Reviewed 18/07/25 (Review 3550). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Served at 52.7 degrees F in a hand washed and dried glass coffee cup I use when traveling. The final temperature is 61.7 degrees F.
Appearance – 4
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, same.
Head – Average (Maximum 2.0 cm, aggressive center pour). Biscuit, high density with a rocky top, average retention, dropping to a 2 – 3 cm crown leaving drag marks and a thin, complete cap.
Lacing – Excellent! As the level drops and the head retracts, the inside of the glass is coated with a sheet of tiny to near-microscopic bubbles. This eventually breaks into a fine example of torn curtain lacing.
Aroma – 4.25 – Mild smoke (Can’t tell the wood) and a slight vegetal aroma from the peppers. Weak roasted malt.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins slightly sweet with some chocolate and a mild pepper heat. No yeast, no hops. No alcohol (9.6 % ABV, according to the label). No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Mild gastric warming. Finishes slightly bitter with some chocolate.
Palate – 4 – Medium: Creamy: Soft carbonation.
Style: Follows the style guidelines as condensed by BA.
Final impression and summation: 4.25 (After deducting 0.25 point for an undated can) Label artist Nate Burns – giving credit where credit is due! (And giving back 0.25 point for crediting the label artist!) Excellent brew! I’ve had some pepper brews that were too hot to drink and some that, apparently, they forgot to add in the peppers, but this one is top notch! Whenever you deal with a natural product, you roll the dice on flavor – these guys didn’t crap out.

From a 16oz can with no date on it.

This beer pours pitch black as night. There's no light that shines through the glass. There's a 2 finger brown head to the beer. The head has pretty damn good retention, and there's some clingy lacing on the glass.
Aroma has a good caramel cola aroma to the beer. I am not really getting any smoke in the aroma.
Taste - There's a good hit of chocolate up front. The chocolate has a roasted dark chocolate flavor to it, very little sweetness to it. There is a hint of heat from the peppers, and is not hot at all.
The pepper heat isn't spicy and doesn't burn. The heat is just warming. The beer has a nice thickness to it. Smooth feeling, and it doesn't have any booziness to it.
This is a very good beer. If you don't like heat, you might want to avoid it, but it isn't too hot at all.

16 oz can shared.
L: Pours black with lightly fizzy carbo, thin tan head, dark edge lacing, light spotty lacing.
S: Highly roasted caramelized malts, background smoke, earthy pepper, light chocolate, grains.
T: Bakers chocolate, highly caramelized malts, light char, pepper taste (no heat), light vanilla. It is very lightly bitter then the heat from the peppers creeps back and is omnipresent but not overbearing.
F: Smooth heavy bodied feel with a meaty center and a long med dry finish that gets pepper heat at the end.
O: Amazing beer. Doesn't drink like 10% ABV . Quite delicious and warming. Perfect balance of all tastes. I look forward to finding this beer fresh soon. It is outstanding in its style.

So, a smoked Imperial porter with hot peppers!

Impenetrable black, even with a back-light, topped by a dark tan/brown head that grows deceptively. The head starts out almost coke-like it, fizzy and bubbly, and indicating it will be short and short-lived. This deceived me into going to a vigorous pour. I stopped with the head well short of the top of my glass as I saw the character of the head changing, but not soon enough. The resulting head is nothing like it started out to be. It continued to build until it overflowed the glass. It is thick, creamy, tall, and lasts forever. It leaves a very thick wall of "lacing" as it does recede. This does become very attractive, less wall and more lace, as I drink.

The aroma is, as I expected from HammerHeart, smoky; campfire smoke. Roasted malts. Not getting any of the promised pepper.

Ah, there's the pepper, as I take my first sip. It starts out with a hint of pepper initially, but this grows and grows through the middle and into the finish. The aftertaste is spicy hot. While the spice does become front and center, it is never completely obscures the smoky flavor and the roasted porter malts, as they are hardly shrinking violets either. All the flavors are complementary of each other. This is an very well done beer.

But make no mistake: as it is using Dragons's Breath, Brown Moruga Scorpion, and Carolina Reaper peppers it is spicy hot, with the warmth lingering in my mouth for minutes like a very spicy dish. It is, as the beer name says, an "Imperial Hot Pepper Porter". While this spiciness is handled with skill, it most definitely tips well to the hot side so I can't actually be call it balanced. But, the spice is always accompanied by smoke and roast.

The mouth feel is thick for a porter (that is, on the thick side of substantial, but not viscous like some Imperial stouts). The feel would be smooth and creamy, except it has quite a edge from the hot pepper.

Overall, impressive and well-done. I have not in the past taken to the sound of pepper beers. I can, however, appreciate that this beer achieves its apparent goals. The mix of the hot peppers, the smoke, and the roasted malts is truly enjoyable.

Pours a thick black color with a tan head. Snell has campfire smoke vanilla roasted malts. Taste has char smoke ,bark chocolate , smoked malts vanilla ,peppers and cocoa. Mouth feel has pepper heat ,cocoa roasted malt char ,pepper and vanilla , strong ABV that is hidden,

 

L: Pours opaque dark brown to black under a dense 3" light brown cap with a very fine bead and phenomenal retention

S: Definite chocolate and grain, light roast, some pepper heat, some pepper vegetable aromas, mild to low smoke, low hop aromas and moderate alcohol

T: Mildly sweet chocolate, dark chocolate bitterness, coffee, and a rich chocolate finish. Getting chocolate from both the malt and the added chocolate. The pepper heat is there and starts low but it grows a little with each drink. Low smoke flavors provide an interesting accent.

F: Very creamy, full body, moderate heat that grows on you

O: This is an exceptionally well composed beer that is a delight to drink - the pepper, chocolate, smoke and porter flavors all work together very well.

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from 750ml bottle into glass. Label is marked with bottling date of 'Aug. 2017'.
Opaque, black colored body. Mocha tan one finger head settles to cap and ring. Has a few spots of lacing.
Aroma is dark roasted malts and dark chocolate, with whiffs of smoke and very slight pepper.
Taste is slightly sweet dark roast, with the addition of dark chocolate, and a little smoke and a little felt hot pepper on the tongue. Slight bitterness similar to a strong espresso coffee.
Mouth feel is thick and creamy. Mouth coating.
A very tasty imperial porter, with creamy mouth feel and a touch of pepper heat. It's almost like there is a hint of smoky peat at the end of the taste profile.

 

Zero pepper.

L- thick and viscous

S - dark chocolate, metallic, roasty, and peppery.

T - complex. Tons of bakers chocolate, very, very reminiscent of storm king stout. Mocha, faint pepper, very faint smoke. Again metallic.

F - pretty full and creamy. Very dry.

Overall - A little let down. As a smoked beer fanatic I was expecting more. This is storm king stout with maybe a few extra touches of pepper and smoke.