Founders Mango Magnifico Con Calor

This is the latest in the Backstage series from Founders, and I do believe it's the first one we've had this year. Backstage releases are Founders' one-off brews, and usually sell out the day they're released. This hit Central Ohio retailers today, I do believe. If I have my stories straight, there were two cases of this distributed to Central Ohio. Savor Market received 7 of them, and many other, smaller retailers were left out (I rarely win things, so I tried to procure this elsewhere first). Savor often will raffle off rare releases via Facebook, and this was no exception. I happened to be one of the 7 names drawn, out of around 100 entries. When I saw the post, I squealed. Then I jumped up and down around the house for probably 5 more minutes, and hatched the plan to go pick it up tonight. As we drove past the Budweiser brewery, I flipped them off and shouted gleefully, "F*ck you, InBev. We're on our way to get good beer!"

So, here we are, with this super-rare Founders release we've been looking forward to all year. It's an ale brewed with mango and habanero peppers. I hope you haven't forgotten that we also are something of heat-seekers. My dad will be excluded from reviewing this, as he can tolerate no heat. I mean, he unwittingly shoved a couple of Peanut's Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos in his mouth yesterday, and instantly went running for some drink to wash away the pain. Half an hour later, he was back to normal.

Anyway, there's beer to discuss here, and a very exciting one, at that. My taste buds can wait no longer. This pours a medium straw color, with a rapidly dissipating white head. The nose is barely discernible. There may be a hint of mango, and perhaps a tinge of, wait, metallic notes? Not offensive, but yes, I'm definitely getting some metallic in the nose. Occasionally I can pick up the faintest strain of habanero. Hmmm. The nose is a little off-putting, if you can even find it. It starts extremely sweet, almost like mango nectar or mango simple syrup. There's a hint of caramel quickly flashing across the tongue, then the habanero kicks in. And maybe a hint of black pepper. If you don't enjoy spice, this is not the beer for you. It's not overwhelming, but it's there and it lingers. Finally, the sweetness dries out quite a bit toward the end, all the while your tongue is still tingling with the heat from the habanero. The mouthfeel is somewhat thin yet sugary sticky. I think the sweetness negates any alcohol bite you might expect from a 10% beer. As you drink more, the habanero appears earlier on the tongue. I personally love the flavor combination of mango and habanero to the point where I made a bunch of peppery mojitos a couple of weeks ago, and the mango habanero was the most popular of the night.

This would be fanfuckingtastic over a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. I have to apologize to our dear friends the Wargos, who appreciate good beers and even more, they have an unending loving relationship with hot peppers. They would love this, and we'll try to procure a bottle for them, as this isn't going to last throughout the night. Clearly.

Hmmm. I still have some habanero simple syrup left over from Spicy Mojito Night. I'm thinking a half ounce or so in a bottle of Rubaeus would be pretty fantastic.

4.4/5 caps

-Jennie

Oh, how I've longed to try this beer. Founders, check, hot peppers, check. I'm sold. I am not only a hop head, but also a pepper head. Still contemplating if a Habanero IPA would work as a home brew (clearly it's a hit with Habanero Bodhi from Columbus Brewing and 3 Hot Frogs from Elevator here locally).

Regardless, I'm on a fucking mission. My mission is to try this unobtainable brew with habaneros (one of my favorite peppers), so enough bull shit chatter that I'm sure most will skim through, totally oblivious that I said fucking and shit in one fell swoop of self-righteousness. Onto the review.

This has a nice straw color, similar to a good pils. By now, any remains of the head have gone into a distant memory of past 30-some-odd minutes where I was painting and my partner-in-brew reviewing said beer. The aroma on this is faint, but I pickup mango and hints of habanero. The flavor of this is.... unlike anything I've had before. There's an initial sweetness that's almost cloying, followed by a mango blast with building heat. There's some hints of the flavor of the habanero thrown in throughout this beast. Yes, habanero has flavor, a damn good one, if you can get past the heat. The heat on this is more like a tickle on the back on my throat (not to brag, but I dump insanely hot sauces on damn near everything, so habanero isn't much to me). With each sip, the mango comes out more and more. The mouthfeel is weird on this. Light body, easy drinking (sans the heat for those who can't handle it), dry finish, but yet some sweet residual stickiness. If it makes those non-pepper heads have some sort of sense of sanity while tasting this, the sweetness on the backend does cut down on the heat some. There's a nice warming feeling going down the throat, not sure if it's the 10% ABV on this or if it's the peppers.

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan