Viking Brewing Hot Chocolate

Brewed by Viking Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Dallas, Wisconsin USA

I usually always give good scores for appearance so this is the exception. It looks piss poor, no head, particulate-laden brown swamp. It smells like chocolate and chile powder. The taste is cocoa powder and pepper. Its not gross but I don’t really care for the pairing of chocolate and pepper. Serving type: bottle Reviewed on: 01-28-2009 03:01:26

Thanks for the hook up bro! Pours a dark brown color with light brown bubbly head. Aroma is of cocoa powder, roasted malt and a peppery nose. Taste is up front with the cocoa powder and roasted malt only to have the cayenne pepper come in and f the whole thing up. It burns the throat like Cave Creek Chili. Hard to get past that.

Pours a dark brown with a thin off-white head that fades quickly to nothing. It is also full of large clumps of gross particulate. Aroma is cocoa powder, and hot cayenne. Taste is flat, cocoa powder, with the hot finish of cayenne pepper. Not really feeling this.

The pour yields an extremely dark mahogany brown body with a small, quickly fleeting, foamy tan head. Minimal soapy lacing finds its way back to the body. The aroma is nice enough, showing sweet, dark cocoa, lactose, scorched caramel, and hints of pipe tobacco. I didn’t pick up any pepper on the nose. The flavor is a whole different ball game! Dry, dusty, earthy spice notes and hot cayenne pepper assault the roof of the mouth. Bittersweet chocolate and day old coffee provide for the malty background, but they do little to counter the hot, acrid spice notes. Thin bodied for the style, the active carbonation only serves to intensify the peppery heat. The burn is quite intense on the way down. This is definitely different, but its a bit over the top for me and severely lacking in palate.

Dark color. Smell of coco, malt, spice and pepper you would put on pizza. Taste of chocolate, malt and peppers. Strange brew.

12oz bottle. Thick, oily pour. Opaque black in color with a lasting tan head. Some lace was left behind at the end. I smelled subdued chocolate, but not much else. Slightly sweet and full bodied with plenty of fire from the cayenne. The heat was a nice accompaniment to the sugar and distinct cocoa flavor. Despite the somewhat lackluster nose, this was actually an interesting beer if you like spicy food/drink.

I’d bought a four pack of Viking’s "Berserk" but someone had slipped one of these in without my notice...until I got home. Didn’t think I’d like it but gave it a whirl anyway; after all, I’d paid for it. From a 12-oz. bottle, this pours a deep brown with sizable beige head. Nice chocolate aroma on top of the more typical stout roastiness. Fairly subdued initial chocolate taste mixed with a roasted coffee-like flavor. Pepper kicks up near the end and hooboy, it’s pretty hot! A fun beer--and a reasonable stout.

Chocolate and bready,and some spice, must be the pepper, in the end it smelled like chocolate on pizza dough,taste WOW,this is different,you get an initial chocolate taste in front,fades into a basic wort sweetness, then on comes this peppery burning in the back of your throat,very warming,very interesting,you know I like it,and will seek to but some more. Thanks Kingpin