Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL
Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #62, red wax) bought at Binny's in IL; 2012
Style/ABV: Milk/Sweet Stout, 8.2%
Reported IBUs: ?
Alright! I'm getting the best of both worlds tonight. After drinking Revolution's Mad Cow, which was a supped up Milk Stout, and Sam Adams' The Vixen Chocolate Chili Bock, I'm ready to embrace a chili-infused Milk Stout. Thankfully....Pipeworks delivered. About Pipeworks:
"End of Days is our tribute to the coming of the end... of the Mayan calendar! We've aged this milk stout with cacao nibs, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and ancho chilies. The result is a rich chocolaty stout, with just a hint of spice. We hope you'll enjoy this beer before the End of Days."
One final note of interest...this beer doesn't have the usual warning about being bottle conditioned, which leads me to wonder if it is not. Hmm.
This one pours surprisingly dark, and has a rapidly dissolving, thin/sickly looking head. The head had a coffee-brown color, but faded into a bit of a lighter color as it went away. I'm reminded quite a bit of SKA's Autumnal Mole Stout. When held to a bright light, this beer is still ink-black, with a nice brown head that you can kick up by swirling the beer. There's a ton of microscope bubbles providing carbonation for this beer, and a ring of brown is sticking to the sides of the glass. Really, this is sexy stuff.
I really like the aroma on this, and I'm reminded (again) of SKA's Autumnal Mole Stout...only with more of that Sweet Stout base. I'm getting roast, lactose-roast, leather, earthy chilies, green chilies, cinnamon, chili spice, and earthy cocoa and chocolate. This one has some really earthy smells, with that leather-chili-almost dirt thing going on. Maybe coffee?
Oh dang...full disclaimer, I love chili. This beer is spicy! I'm getting some mad chili on the back of this thing. Up front is some chocolate, vanilla, cocoa, and coffee...this rolls into lactose-vanilla-coffee, and then bam! I'm getting firey chili spice, cinnamon, mole sauce, dirt, ash, spent coffee, and some impressive chili heat down the back of my throat. The chili heat is amazing, with some nacho-jalapeno-salt kick. This is smooth, but features flat carbonation, and some slight sticky on the finish.
This beer makes me happy, and fuck the haters. But I gravitate towards overly spicy food. This is smooth, slightly creamy, and dense...but features flat carbonation, and transitions into tingly chili goodness. Mouthfeel is medium-full to full. The palate depth on this is good, with solid chilies hanging around in the finish, and complexity is moderate to high. At 8.2%, I could drink this all night long. Up front is coffee, roast, chocolate, vanilla, a hint of dark fruit, lactose; the middle starts with lactose, then cinnamon, then dirt, ash, hints of smoke, fire; the back end is cinnamon, chili spice, and some nice chili heat. Slightly sticky; slight alcohol on the finish; definite chili heat.
Rating: Divine Brew
This is fan-fucking-tastic, and is surely a Light Divine Brew. I've heard that previous batches didn't have the body to support all the stuff going on here, but Batch #62 is a big boy Stout. This is one of the better things I've had from Pipeworks, but I'm biased in that I love spicy food. You get mad mole flavors and mad chili flavors in this, and I just want to pair this with some chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, a churro with chocolate dipping sauce, chili, assorted Mexican food, a pork sandwich, or anything that works with chilies/mole. Solid stuff.
Random Thought: I am biased as hell, so take that for what it is...also, this is quite the "Milk Stout." I'm curious what the recipe for this beer is prior to the addition of the vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, chili peppers, and cinnamon.
Reported IBUs: ?
Alright! I'm getting the best of both worlds tonight. After drinking Revolution's Mad Cow, which was a supped up Milk Stout, and Sam Adams' The Vixen Chocolate Chili Bock, I'm ready to embrace a chili-infused Milk Stout. Thankfully....Pipeworks delivered. About Pipeworks:
Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. At one point - and maybe still - the goal was the release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.
Pipework's End Of Days was brewed to commemorate the end of the world...and this beer is totally appropriate. Why, you ask? Because the Mayans liked chocolate and chilies, and made chocolate drink. The back of the bottle states:
"End of Days is our tribute to the coming of the end... of the Mayan calendar! We've aged this milk stout with cacao nibs, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and ancho chilies. The result is a rich chocolaty stout, with just a hint of spice. We hope you'll enjoy this beer before the End of Days."
One final note of interest...this beer doesn't have the usual warning about being bottle conditioned, which leads me to wonder if it is not. Hmm.
 |
| End of Days (Batch #62) |
This one pours surprisingly dark, and has a rapidly dissolving, thin/sickly looking head. The head had a coffee-brown color, but faded into a bit of a lighter color as it went away. I'm reminded quite a bit of SKA's Autumnal Mole Stout. When held to a bright light, this beer is still ink-black, with a nice brown head that you can kick up by swirling the beer. There's a ton of microscope bubbles providing carbonation for this beer, and a ring of brown is sticking to the sides of the glass. Really, this is sexy stuff.
I really like the aroma on this, and I'm reminded (again) of SKA's Autumnal Mole Stout...only with more of that Sweet Stout base. I'm getting roast, lactose-roast, leather, earthy chilies, green chilies, cinnamon, chili spice, and earthy cocoa and chocolate. This one has some really earthy smells, with that leather-chili-almost dirt thing going on. Maybe coffee?
Oh dang...full disclaimer, I love chili. This beer is spicy! I'm getting some mad chili on the back of this thing. Up front is some chocolate, vanilla, cocoa, and coffee...this rolls into lactose-vanilla-coffee, and then bam! I'm getting firey chili spice, cinnamon, mole sauce, dirt, ash, spent coffee, and some impressive chili heat down the back of my throat. The chili heat is amazing, with some nacho-jalapeno-salt kick. This is smooth, but features flat carbonation, and some slight sticky on the finish.
This beer makes me happy, and fuck the haters. But I gravitate towards overly spicy food. This is smooth, slightly creamy, and dense...but features flat carbonation, and transitions into tingly chili goodness. Mouthfeel is medium-full to full. The palate depth on this is good, with solid chilies hanging around in the finish, and complexity is moderate to high. At 8.2%, I could drink this all night long. Up front is coffee, roast, chocolate, vanilla, a hint of dark fruit, lactose; the middle starts with lactose, then cinnamon, then dirt, ash, hints of smoke, fire; the back end is cinnamon, chili spice, and some nice chili heat. Slightly sticky; slight alcohol on the finish; definite chili heat.
This is fan-fucking-tastic, and is surely a Light Divine Brew. I've heard that previous batches didn't have the body to support all the stuff going on here, but Batch #62 is a big boy Stout. This is one of the better things I've had from Pipeworks, but I'm biased in that I love spicy food. You get mad mole flavors and mad chili flavors in this, and I just want to pair this with some chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, a churro with chocolate dipping sauce, chili, assorted Mexican food, a pork sandwich, or anything that works with chilies/mole. Solid stuff.
Random Thought: I am biased as hell, so take that for what it is...also, this is quite the "Milk Stout." I'm curious what the recipe for this beer is prior to the addition of the vanilla beans, cocoa nibs, chili peppers, and cinnamon.
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