Chili Ale
Bond's Brewing Company

another cool beer style that seems to fit the late summer and early fall window, and this is a unique and fairly compelling one, done with roasted rather than fresh hatch green chilies, which adds a neat element to this beer, especially in the aroma, and i think overall the way the peppers come through in this beer is fantastic, its the rest of this beer that raises a few questions, but overall this is distinctive and fun. hazy medium blonde color to this, immediately it doesnt look super refined, cool packaging though, more body than expected, hardly any head and definitely under carbonated, not the appearance i was expecting. the nose is its best feature, the pepper is so real and so forward, like actually fire roasted, like the charred skin and indeed the flame itself is a part of this, which to me makes the whole thing, the fleshy seedy pepper is so honest, i love the bold use of this ingredient too, way cool. there is some decently sturdy almost wheaty grain character, as well as a little strange tartness to the ferment, like this is halfway sour or something, a little out of place but the pepper is so intoxicating its hard to not be impressed at this stage, it really delivers. the tartness is unfortunately a bigger factor in the flavor, the first few sips its lighter and later, but by the end as the beer warms a bit, its significant enough for this to seem either infected or intentionally soured, which they sure dont promote it as being. the pepper part still rules, roasty and vegetal and somewhat hot in the throat, but still drinkable, i wish the whole time for a cleaner ferment though, that aspect really distracts from what makes the rest of this so special. i think the grain aspect adds balance and keeps it beer, and the bit of body fits well. pepper heat linger just a bit, true green chili character at absolute peak in this, so that the rest of the beer is less than stellar is disappointing, some bitterness with the acid at the end, curious sweetness though too, an almost stone fruit flash before the swallow, low burn on the recall. more carbonation would help this, and weird as it is, i think the pepper part is mighty successful. a truly unique can of beer here that had me intrigued the whole way, seemingly a few simple cleanups from absolute excellence...