Viking Brewing Hot Chocolate

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

Date: 04/29/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Dark Lord Day, 2006

brewed with cocoa and cyane pepper, black, headless, spicy dry malt aroma, creamy body, sweet malt flavor followed by a long pepper finish, nice chocolate character,

Aroma: 5/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.2/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: **+/4

(12oz bottle) Opaque brown-black body with tiny brown head. Aroma is moderately sweet, chocolate, roast. Taste is moderately sweet, chocolate, light pepper. Creamy/watery medium body.

(Bottle) Pours a dark brown body with a small tan head. Aroma of chocolate and a hint of peppers. Similar flavor as the aroma. Not a bad pepper beer.

Bottle... Muddy brown ale with a small, fizzy, light brown head. The nose is of chocolate, vanilla, caramel and yes, a hint of cayenne pepper. The flavor is chocolatey and sweet, then dry and spicy at the last possible second. Medium-bodied and buttery with medium carbonation. Finishes chocolatey and almost hot (cayenne hot). Different, but very good. I’ll go against the grain here and say "I really like it!" Thanks to MilkmanDan for filling my glass with this brew!

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.

12 ounce bottle from Blue Max in Burnsville, MN (June 2007) served a bit below cellar temperature from a Hair of the Dog glass. Pretty-near-opaque dark maple to black, with a smallish, very dark smooth head that disappears quickly....dark-chocolaty aroma is a bit papery and dull, but there is certainly a hint of pepper to it, also perhaps some plasticy qualities and a little Concord grape......on the palate, the pepper is quite prominent, the chocolate takes a back seat, the middle palate is especiall hot but it grows milder towards the finish, which is a bit dry and cardboardy....some faint raisiny, grapy notes as well; low carbonation, a bit sticky.....this isn’t too bad for a hot pepper beer, I guess, and is actually better than I expected after the last few bombs I’ve had from this brewery, but I can’t say that I’m really enjoying it either.

Thanks for sharing, hey_kevin. Poured a dark brown that is almost black. The aroma is chocolate, raspberries and some cardboard. The taste has some cardboard and some light chocolate. There is definitely a light burning sensation in the back of the throat. I have had some high quality spicy hot chocolate and truffles. Those had a lot more chocolate and were more flavorful. This ends up being a little bland.

DL06: Poured a murky dark brown color that left a brown film on the glass. Chocolate aroma with light ash and a dried spice aroma. The flavor was very chocolatey. It really tasted like hot cocoa. The cheap ones made with water not mild. This had a little water taste in it. Hot spicy finish. Unique for sure. It really wasn’t too bad. I would try it again but I don’t know if I could drink a whole bottle of it.