El Chupbrewcabra- Mexican Chocolate Porter- Unafraid of the Dark IV

**NOTE – this beer was popular that it is now our Winter seasonal! The official beer page is here ** One thing that I love most about beer is that there are so many different varieties and flavor profiles that there is most definitely a beer for everyone. While one person’s palette may love German-Style wheat beers but hate IPAs, someone else’s palette will feel just the opposite – loving IPAs, but hating wheat beers.

My palette happens to love chocolate – especially dark chocolate. It does happy dances for anything spiced. And, it adores anything with a touch of heat. So take that into consideration when I tell you that I absolutely ADORE our latest Unafraid of the Dark beer- El Chupbrewcabra Mexican Chocolate Porter.

Before getting to the beer, who might be thinking ‘what the heck is with the name’? Well, you can thank Assistant Brewer Chris for this one! The name is a play on Chupacabra. Still scratching your head? Well, Wikipedia does a good job does a good job explaining what a Chupacabra is, so let’s use that… “The chupacabra or chupacabras (Spanish pronunciation: [t?upa?ka??as], literally “goat-sucker”) is a legendary cryptid rumored to inhabit parts of the Americas, with the first sightings reported in Puerto Rico…. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. It is purportedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile, and even being spotted outside the Americas in countries like Russia and The Philippines… Biologists and wildlife management officials view the chupacabra as a contemporary legend.” Anyway, a fun & spicy name for a fun & spicy beer!

Ok, getting back to the beer… We started with a robust porter base, and added cocoa powder to the boil. Once the beer fermented, Annette made a tea using a combo of:
— cayenne-like peppers (from the dashing RJ at White Gate Farm) that we had dried and saved from last year, and
— cinnamon sticks that were used by Flag Hill in a spiced rum that they made last year.
This tea was then added to the fermenter. And we waited…

So what’s the beer taste and smell like?
Here are some more details–
– Appearance: The head is light caramel in color, and the beer itself is mahogany black.
– Aroma: Cinnamon. Oh yes. Just the right balance – not too much, not too little. I get just a touch of heat spice in the nose, too, rounded out by dark chocolate. Head brewer Annette says she can smell the “rummy-ness” from the cinnamon sticks. (But her palette and nose are a bit sharper than the average bear’s. 🙂 )
– Taste & Mouthfeel: This is a full-bodied beer. Take a sip and you immediately get the cinnamon and dark chocolate. The chocolate lingers, and I get a very slight heat that remains on my tongue. It’s a very, very nice heat – barely noticeable to some – but, to me, it just makes me want to take another sip! We find that sometimes cinnamon in beer can be really sharp. Luckily, this beer isn’t like that – the cinnamon flavor is very smooth and rounded out. The beer this mostly closely resembles is our Chai Porter, so, if you like that, chances are you will like this one!
– Pairing: We drank the beer while eating a chocolate covered almond, and it was quite good! 🙂 Other suggested pairings would be enchiladas – esp. with mole sauce, tortas (like the cubano at Vida Cantina), chili, crispy seared duck, and moist chocolate cake.
– Stats – ABV is 5.6% and IBU is 35.

El Chupbrewcabra will be available starting Thursday, February 5th.

Cheers!
–Nicole