Viking Brewing Hot Chocolate

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

Sampled at the brewery. Huge but not overpowering cocoa aroma. Great, smooth, not bitter porter like flavor. Cocoa seems to lubricate the palate for the slow warming of the peppers. It has all the parts, beer, cocoa, and pepper. Very enjoyable, could drink a lot of this.

pours a nice thick color w/ a tiny brown head. Smells like a weak chocolate and peppers not good. Palate is very thin and blah. Flavor is bad.. lots of bad chocolate and a shitty spice.. yucky.

Tan bubbles in a milky way formation drift atop a brown body with scads of chunks in suspension. Lots of cocoa in the aroma and hints of an herbal liquor (Jaegermeister). Intriguing scent. Lots of dark cocoa in the flavors that lead to a mild red pepper warmth. The slow burn kind of sensation the kind that sneaks up ever so slightly and makes you grab for your beer. Some mild brown sugar and malty gingersnap dough in the mix. This works for me. I would love to make some mole sauce with this.

Another gift from Phil. This was very unusual. Dark, murky brown body under a foamy tan head. The nose was malt and chocolate but none of the promised pepper. The mouthfeel was smooth and thin. The flavor started with a sweet malt chocolate that was appealing but nothing special. Where is the pepper? Nowhere. Yet. With each successive sip came more and more of the spicy pepper until the least dregs packed a nice kick. Not a beer I’d buy in bulk for regular consumption but a fun novelty beer to share with friends and watch reactions.

Cool bottle - love their labeling. Pours a medium thickness and is dark, with a lot of sediment, leaving dots on the glass for its own take on lacing. No head. No fizz. Just sediment. Aroma is like a sweet stout; strong on the roasted and chocolate malts. Flavor is just like hot chocolate - not the milk-based type, but made with water. Smooth going in and then you swallow. All of a sudden there’s a tingling on the tip of the throat, which immediately triples in intensity to an onslaught of cayenne pepper. Okay, next sip: now we’ve got some dark chocolate shavings rounding out the flavor, and then - holy shit - there are those f*cking peppers again. Smooth and full-bodied. Man, those peppers set a flame to the throat. Feels like I’ve been screaming on roller coasters all day. Gentle carbonation. Rich dark chocolate finish with - you guessed it - tingly peppers. This is one unique beer.

2004 bottle from Robertsreality! Thanks man, this hit the spot! Cocoa brown head is gone as soon as I look up from writing my note on its color. Beautiful (to me) murky brown, highly unfiltered body. Deep burguny sheen on a hot chocolate background. Smells of cocoa, marshmallow, vanilla. Flavor? Yes! I exclaim. Sweet cocoa is not overdone, not syrupy and not cloying. Cayenne pepper burns nicely while swallowing and lingers well on the aftertaste. Soft, very near to uncarbonated. Very even mouthfeel, slippery you might say. Graham crackers and cocoa on the finish, some chocolate malt is hidden in there, faintest hint of roast. Medium body. Damn I enjoyed this!

Pours brown from the bottle with no head. Nose is of rich chocolate. Tastes like a chocolate stout, but with a warming pepper sensation at the end. The flavors don’t really integrate very well. This is an interesting beer, but I would have to be in the right mood to fully enjoy it.

Festival sampling. Black body, milk chocolate noseroast malt and pepper in the flavor. A milk stout with pepper -weird! The stout portion was pretty nice, I’d like to try it by itself.