Bent River Jalapeno Pepper Ale

This 4.81% ABV ale from the Bent River Brewery of Rock Island, Illinois is made with 200 pounds of fire-roasted jalapeno peppers per batch of this wheat ale.

The beer pours amber and copper in color. It pours with a big, roiling head of fizzy, foamy light tan head. It fizzles down to near nothing in a couple of minutes. The aroma is a big, beautiful nose of roasted jalapeno peppers. There are no fake or artificial pepper notes, or flavoring notes here, it is obviously big quantities of fresh and roasted peppers. The taste follows the aromas; first the roasted and tangy tastes of jalapeno peppers, then a big wave of heat, quite hot, but not so much it destroys the flavors (although it does leave the lips and throat atingle); and finally, as the heat sizzles down, you can tell there is enough toasted and roasted wheat and malt to hold the big pepper flavors and heat up.

This is a very fine example of a straight forward hot pepper ale.