Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Pipeworks One Horned Wonder And His Fanciful Flying Fresno



I hate to say it, but I think I found the first Pipeworks beer that I don't like. There have been a few that I wasn't thrilled about, especially some of the DIPAs. But this one I actually drank a bit of, and then gave the rest to someone else. Basically, it's like when you're cooking and you don't quite get the flavor right in a dish. It's disappointing, but you move on to something better.

One Horned Wonder is described as a "Big Ole Pale Ale with Fresno Chiles and Passion Fruit Added." It's a reminder that even the greats still put their pants on one leg at a time. Pipeworks hooked up with the Aviary (which you might not know about, but they make very nice cocktails) to generate this giant pale ale. The beer was released in January, so this is a bit late--I only found the bottle after getting a tip from someone at a great, but lesser-known liquor store. So it's quite likely that the hop and fruit aroma and flavors had faded by the time I got a taste.

The Wonder contains Simcoe and Citra hops, but then Pipeworks added passion fruit and rotary evaporated fresno chiles, which removes the heat, but leaves the taste. When I poured my bottle, I thought it looked great. It's really a double IPA, rather than a pale ale at 9% ABV. And one does not expect a pale ale to have so much sediment. In any case, it had a nice fluffy head that went away relatively fast, but left behind a bit of lacing. The color is golden. But the aroma is slightly sweet, though dominated by the chile. And this is precisely how it tasted. A bit of up front hoppiness, a little tropical fruit sweetness, and then chile. None of this is happening in a good way, mind you.