Mocha Machine Picoso
Beachwood Brewing - Huntington Beach

Picasso on LSD. Dylan Thomas drinking moonshine. Edgar Allen Poe after a mushroom. And John Barrymore tilting a Four Loko (before frat boys messed up the original recipe). That’s this beer. Something already good, but then lifted into something even better.

"Ting-a-ling-a-ling".

16o can from Half Time. Near black pour with a fizzy beige head. Bitter, coffee aroma, some chocolate notes. Taste adds cinnamon, light sweetness, coffee bitterness, cocoa. A little tingle from the chilies..

Midnight black pour with a mocha head. Smell was led more by the coffee and chocolate with earthy and smoky accents, cinnamon and peppers were present but light along with leather. Taste adds some vanilla to the up front flavors, but now the cinnamon and peppers assert themselves in the finish, nice bite with a some roast. Tobacco and stale raisin meet leather in the background first a brief moment before spice elements kick in. Large presence on the palate, super chewy malts, dark and heavy for style, spice finish powerfully. Liked this a lot more than I thought I would from the nose, nice work

Brew #14 from the Hop Culture Juicy Brews box, a 16oz can poured into a Sam Smith nonic.

A: Dark brown cola-ish pour with a decent dark khaki head that laces OK.

S: Strong earthy and spicy coffee notes; cinnamon and pepper are coming through strongly. There is a touch of sweetness, possibly chocolate but it’s more like a caramel or vanilla. Rich and mocha-ish.

T: More mocha on the flavors with a clear, present chocolate quality mixing with that roasty, somewhat bitter fresh espresso character. Moderate cinnamon throughout with a lingering hot pepper spice in the throat that isn’t overwhelming, just present.

MF: I guessed lower in abv when trying this one, drinks like it’s closer to 8% but there is some heft and warmth from the booze.

O: Really nice peppery mocha porter that grew on me throughout the session.

 

Cola black with a moderately dense tan head slowly settling to a soft film and creamily thick collar.

Smell is just the right combo of cinnamon, coffee, chiles and chocolate malt. Its strikingly delectable aroma evokes Mexican coffee, mole and capirotada very well. The cinnamon is like Little Debbie coffee cakes complete with caramelized brown sugar, dashed by a hint of chiles. I could just smell this for days, particularly because it's so subtly balanced on the nose, in part by notes of tobacco and light roast, while avoiding being a one note decadent dessert or a spice punch, incorporating everything all at once.

The medium body has a nice round froth where the spice immediately kicks the palate like a donkey. It's got a real sharp sting up front, but mellows in the middle and especially in the semi-dry finish, where the cinnamon brown sugar rises up with a hint of chocolate. It surprises me how much chile pepper is present on the palate compared to the nose, but it’s not unwelcome either.

This is a totally under the radar Mexican Cake clone in a can. 100%. And the coffee just adds depth, bitterness and a solid but not too charred roast to the chocolatey malt.