May 16, 2016

Flying Dog Ancho Lime Paradise Lager

Ancho Lime Paradise Lager is Flying Dog’s second release in their new Heat Series that was announced earlier this year. The first brew in this run of peppery beers was the tasty Oaked Chipotle Ale that provided a nice, smokey chipotle character to go along with chicory and toasted oak. Now, we’ve got a 6% ABV lager that is brewed with lime juice, grains of paradise and ancho chilis (dried poblano peppers).

The ancho chili produces between 1,000 and 3,500 Scoville units (the international unit of measure for chili heat) which ranks it below just the jalapeno in terms of spice and well below the current record holder, the Carolina Reaper (1.5m Scoville units). What I’m getting at here is that the beer, while it does have a touch of peppery heat, is more playful than mean. The heat lingers in the throat a bit which can be a bit unnerving while drinking a lager, but it works well here. A solid, biscuity backbone supports the pepper influence, grains of paradise and lime flavors quite nicely.

That all said, I would have been hard pressed to tell you that this was a lager after the first couple of sips — the adjunct influence, as expected, dominates the flavor profile of the beer. Ancho Lime Paradise Lager doesn’t pack a tone of heat, but does have a refreshing and teasing peppery heat. I could see several bottles of this beer going down nicely after grilling up some chicken on the grill — well, whenever Spring decides to officially stick around.

This is a review of a promotional sample.