Jalapeno & Habanero IPA
Pigeon Head Brewery

looks like they do a couple of beers with these peppers, including an india pale lager which sounds cool, but its great as an ipa too, tons of real fleshy pepper aroma, light on the heat, and still hops first in the flavor, a clean and jubilant beer, drinkable for a chili beer, and neatly balanced. surprised to see this as pale as it is, yellow in the glass, a lot of these types of beers rely on deeper grain, copper or amber colored, sweet to balance the heat, but not this one, its about as light as such a thing can be and still have this balance, earthy and dry, minimal in terms of malt really, nice frothy white head from the tap and web lacing as it drinks. the nose is the best part, the green verdant crisp fresh jalapeno for sure, but its the habanero specifically which is exciting to me, less common in these, and easily identifiable, real, and fresh, distinctly citrusy too, and i would think its citra hops, at least in part, highlighting it here, definitely compatible hop profile and not overdone, almost in the pale ale range to me. the flavor is great too, but less pungent on the peppers than the nose, equal portions of each, only a little spicy on the swallow, balanced by a whisper of hop bitterness, and other hop wrinkles of pineapple, pine resin, and lemon zest, really neat, super fresh. the peppers linger just a little, but its not too much, warm but not staying with me, deep in the throat too. nice pairing of these peppers and these hops, thats the win here, and the dosing, which keeps this drinkable. good carbonation, light body, lots of flavor. cool recipe and one of the better chili beers ive had in some time, love the presence of the habanero!