I was wandering around one of the local beer shops I frequent the other day when I came across this new line of small batch beers from Samuel Adams. There were five in total (I hope to get to them all eventually). I decided to go a little wild with my first review of this series. The Vixen immediately caught my attention because of the label. It was very detailed and after reading the detailed description of this beer on the label, my taste buds were far too intrigued for me to pass this one up.
The label of this beer brags of a medley of flavors including "chilis from Mexico, cocoa nibs from Equador, and cinnamon from Southeast Asia" as well as "hallertau, mittelfrueh, and noble hops", and a variety of malts.
Safe to say I was pretty excited when I picked this bottle up. I was especially excited because this was to be my first chili beer. Chili beer seems to be exploding right now as a style, so I was ready to see what all the hype was about. This beer was so interesting that I needed another set of taste buds to help me figure it out, so I called a good drinking buddy over and we dove head first into The Vixen.
This beer pours an extremely opaque brown color with a hint of amber when you hold it to the light. There is about two fingers of tan/brown head after the initial pour. This brew held about half a finger of head throughout the entire tasting and it left a lot of lacing around the tulip I was drinking from.
The aroma of this beer was really interesting. On the first whiff all the ingredients I had read about on the label of this bottle were very subtle. I definitely got the chili scent right away, along with some cocoa, and caramel from the malts. As I continued to smell the bouquet of this brew I got more and more of the chili and cocoa on top of the malts. The ingredients balanced out really nicely in the scent of this beer. The only thing I was disappointed about was the lack of cinnamon in the bouquet. My friend and I really had to strain to smell the cinnamon. Once we caught it we were able to keep track of it but it took a couple sips and continuous smelling to get a hold of the cinnamon. It's safe to say this beer was a really interesting bouquet. It's definitely one of those beers that you continuously smell as you drink because new flavors and smells always seem to be arising.
As far as taste was concerned, this beer did just as much for my palette as it did for my nostrils, although I must say that the flavors weren't as intense as I was expecting. On my first taste I definitely tasted the cocoa and chilis on top of the various German malts that made up this bock. This beer started with the cocoa, about mid way through you got a little bit of bite from the hops, and it finished with a nice amount of heat from the chilis. It wasn't an uncomfortable heat, it was just enough to warm you a little bit after you finished the sip. There was also a little bit of a bite from the hops on top of the heat from the chilis. Again, the only thing I was left wanting was a little hint of cinnamon. I had to really search for it and only found it towards the end of the beer. It could just be my palette, but my friend seemed to have a little trouble finding the cinnamon as well. Overall though, I felt like this beer balanced the variety of ingredients in this beer really well. This beer went down really smooth and I really like the subtle heat from the chilis near the end of each sip.
The Vixeb had a pretty heavy body. I didn't get much carbonation tickling my taste buds while I was drinking it. I really enjoyed this beers after taste. The heat from the chilis and the bite from the hops gave this beer a really interesting finish.
Overall I'd say I enjoyed this beer. The subtlety of all the ingredients kind of disappointed me but there were so many dimensions to this beer I can see why the subtlety was necessary. All of the flavors balanced each other out really well and made for a nice relaxing drink. I can see this beer being fantastic as we get farther and farther into the winter season, especially out here in the ice plains of south Chicagoland. This beer definitely makes me want to try some more chili beers. I was kind of worried about what kind of flavor the chili would add, but I really ended up enjoying the little bit of heat they added to this beer at least. I would definitely suggest picking this up just because of the really interesting flavors and ingredients. It's definitely the only chili bock I've seen. Most of the other chili beers I have heard of have been stouts.
I don't have too much more planned for this week aside from some random tastings. I've got a beer from Boulevard and one from Breckenridge on deck, so hopefully I'll get around to that within the next few days...
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