Rojo Caliente
Mountain Hops Brewhouse

clever and flavorful raspberry blonde, neat how ambitious some of the beer was in here, and i enjoyed this one a lot. the pepper flavor is honest, true to habanero specifically, with that tight citrus note, but pretty mellow on the heat, a little mid palate burn and some warmth going down but no linger so its new on each sip i take. the raspberry is mostly up front for me, natural enough and also quite subtle, maybe bringing just a little tang in to marry in with the habanero, but there is some light sweetness too that pulls the grain forward and combines with it to balance the pepper, really delicate but interesting beer overall, light bodied and nicely carbonated too, the beers here had all the intangibles a lot of these small local spots are often missing, the quality and attention to detail was there in the beers i had. a little more malt color than most blondes, a pale amber to me, nice head from the tap, maybe taking a little color from the fruit, fresh juicy nose, and in the end i can smell the peppers as much as i can taste the which is cool. its not overdone, but its definitely distinctive, and its smart having the raspberries in here too, a great tandem. nice brew, decent base blonde too, nice for summer!

On draught at Mountain Hops.

Pour is of a honey colour with a small head of foam.

Smell is strong with the tart raspberry and definitely some heat from the peppers.

Taste is wonderfully balanced between the tart/semi sweet raspberries and the spicy heat from the peppers. Long after the swallow, I still feel the heat!

Medium body and carbonation.

Yikes this is good but slow sips only!