Mexican Hot Chocolate Pumpkin Stout
O'Fallon Brewery

I couldn't get past the funk others have mentioned. Overpowered everything else. Ended up drinking half a beer and dumped the rest.

 

Wow, way better than I expected...

...though there is not much of a pumpkin flavor, and for all the rest you experience with this, I ain't complaining. The smell is deeply chocolate in scent, the taste is spicy without being too hot, a deep and rich flavor of chocolate without being sweet, truly a unique beer. The only issue I have is that it calls itself a pumpkin stout, and I can't taste any pumpkin. Again, no big deal. Mouthfeel is light, a tad watery, but the rest of the experience was superb.

Dark brown to light black in color. There’s a fingernail of brown around the rim and covering most of the top. There’s a pronounced amount of sediment suspended in the body. The aroma is of cocoa powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon with an undercurrent of cayenne pepper. I’m tasting cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and and cayenne pepper. The mouth provides a steady, moderate cayenne pepper burn.

12oz bottle. Poured out an opaque, jet-black color with a small, light brown head of foam. It left minimal lacing. It smelled of cinnamon, nutmeg, peppers and chocolate. Very spicy with lots of cinnamon, dark chocolate and roasted caramel. Subtle hints of pumpkin.

First off, God help me for drinking a pumpkin beer before Labor Day. At least I’m watching the fantastic Clutch perform a virtual show. Maybe that makes up for it.

Poured into a Bruery RS snifter. This was part of the annual “Pumpkin Pack” release. The beer, not the glass.

A semi-vigorous pour yields a pretty thick mocha head that dissipates into about a half-finger thick ring around the glass. A quick swirl and it looks more like a porter than a stout if I’m splitting hairs.

On the nose, I get faint chocolate, a healthy dose of cinnamon, and something unpleasantly funky; can’t put my finger on it.

That funk is present upon my first sip, but is blasted away by a huge hit of cinnamon, then chocolate, and a really nice pepper burn on the back. I’m a huge pepper beer fan, and sometimes the burn is almost undetectable, and I feared that with this one, but I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s there and makes itself at home for a bit.

The feel follows the look. Drinks more like a porter to me, but I could be nitpicking.

Overall, I dig this one a lot. Would definitely buy/drink a sixxer, even despite that minor weird funky note.