Heat Series: Chocolate Habañero Stout
Flying Dog Brewery

Flying Dog Heat Series "Chocolate Habanero Stout"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle, "...ENJOY BY:08/10/17"
$2 @ Weis, Conshohocken, PA

Notes via stream of consciousness: Another beer in the Flying Dog Heat Series, but this one is a stout so I'm hopeful that it'll be a little less hot than some of them. On the other hand, it's Habanero, but still. It pours an almost opaque brown-black beneath a rocky head of tan. It looks pretty good although the head is already falling. I assume that the oils from the peppers have a hand in that. The aroma is mainly chocolatey, and although I get some pepperiness it's more spice than actual habanero. OK here we go... chocolatey but with spice right up from. It immediately made me think of food. I'm not sure what it would pair well with, maybe a grilled steak, but it's definitely got something interesting going on. Let me try again. Yep, chocolatey, and caramelish, with heat, and what I think is just a touch of actual pepper flavor. There's also some some coffee to it. It's soft, and perhaps more like creamy coffee than black, but there's some roastiness to it. It's interesting and nice, and now that I've had a few sips, the chocolatey and lightly roasty malt and the heat from the habanero seem to be melding a bit. I'm not really finding any hops although there is a kind of generic hop flavor in there at the swallow. I should also note that it's not really that hot. If this were a jar of salsa I'd definitely label it "mild". I like it, and I like it just as a beer. This is something that I could sit down with at the end of the night and just relax with. Or, as I mentioned earlier, it would probably go well with a variety of different foods but I'll leave that up to the experts to make those suggestions. Mexican of course comes to mind, but I think that's a little too easy. In the end, two thumbs up!

 

 

12oz bottle poured into a snifter

A- pours a dark black color with a thin khaki colored head that quickly reduces to a ring around the edge of the glass

S- aroma is a bit muted, slightly charred roasted malt up front, a bit of chocolate, just a trace of earthy pepper oil

T- sweet chocolate and roasted malt up front, mid-palate is thin, the finish gives some roast notes. The linger of pepper comes off as heat, not so much flavor

M- medium body and carbonation leads to a foamy mouthfeel and finish, medium pepper heat sticks around long after consuming

O- comes across as more of a gimmick beer, the base beer is rather bland, so all I'm really getting is some heat on the linger

 

Nearly still black with a thin tan ring.

Smell is mostly chocolate, with cola and a hint of pepper.

Thin, and semi-dry, spicy heat is much more potent on the tongue than the nose, with flavors of cola, light roast and chocolate trying to pop in.

 

 

 

Pours a black color with a tan head. Smell is habanero spice. Taste is chocolate powder with habanero flavoring. Mouthfeel is medium. Overall, not bad not good. Just okay.

I just conducted a small horizontal of Flying Dog's beers back in mid-January & now it becomes incumbent upon me to keep current with their latest offerings as they become available. Note that I am the one responsible for the initial add, the Notes & the approved pic. I am glad that others had the chance to review it first.

From the bottle: "Stout brewed with hot peppers."; "Sweet chocolate evolves into a heat that lingers. The stuff of legends ... or, at the very least, some pretty sweet jazz lyrics."

I Pop!ped the cap & began a gentle pour, in keeping with my New Year's Resolution and my Lenten denial. Aggro pours from bottles are now (mostly) a thing of the past. I am really coming to embrace a vigorous in-glass swirl since it is much less likely to bungle things up. An in-glass swirl raised a finger of dense, deep-tan/light-brown head with decent retention. Color was Black/Opaque (SRM = 44), allowing cola highlights only at the edges. Nose reminded me of Mexican mole with a spicy chocolatiness that actually caused a bout of sneezing for me. Wow! Mouthfeel was medium to full, not quite creamy, but on the approach. The taste was more peppery than the others in the series, but still nothing to really worry about, if it is a concern. I really liked the way that the chocolatiness of the Stout commingled/interacted with the peppery heat to give it a spicy sweetness. I was put in mind of Cincinnati chili or, again, mole. As the previous reviewers mentioned, there are other beers in this subsection of the style that really bring the heat, but I do not always find bigger and stronger to be wholly enjoyable. This was a nice, chocolate-forward Stout, enhanced, but not overwhelmed by the peppery spice. Finish was dry, of course, but a tasty drink that would be a great accompaniment on Taco Tuesday, among other occasions.

 

This is the second of the "heat" series I've tried from Flying Dog after I enjoyed the Carolina Reaper Peach IPA last summer. As a spice head, the first thing I enjoy about this beer is that the spiciness is easily noticeable. That's not to say that if you're the kind of person who likes to dump half a bottle of chili oil into your Pho that this beer will turn your cheeks red, but you don't have to go searching for the spice as you might some other beers that advertise a spicy quality but come up woefully short.

I detected the chocolate a bit more in the smell than the taste but it was there enough that it nicely combined with the spice for a satisfying "mexican hot chocolate" experience.

Overall a well put together brew. I would have to rate it a tick down from a beer like Stone Xocoveza, where the chocolate element actually imparts an amazing cocoa powder texture in your mouth, but Dogfish's offering is more satisfying in the heat department, and all the elements balance each other very nicely.

 

 

 

Going into this I don't really like spicy beer but I do like Great Divide Chocolate Stout which has some chili pepper so this spawned my purchase. So far so good stout is nice and dark with a 1/4 inch of mocha foam that settles to a nice lace ring. Smell is muted no real chocolate smell or pepper esters. Taste is pretty muted also no real chocolate or coffee roast but every sip becoming more painful from the pepper heat. Not sure what Great Divide uses but I am guessing not Habanero which is too much burn for such a light body.

Overall for pepper beers though it's not terrible after half the glass the taste does round out but the heartburn is mounting. Be warned this beer is spicy!