"Randal" > wrote in
ups.com:

>>>So what's a "chile beer" then? I always figured it was a
>>>beer with chile in it, though most attempts don't work
>>>very well.
>
> Good question.
>
> I suppose attempting to infuse some kind of chile into the
> beer as a part of the process, rather than plunking a
> serrano into a bottle and calling it done.

I don't see much of a difference between that and plunking a
plug of Fuggles into a keg before bunging it up. Obviously, the
ingredients are different, but the process is the same.

> Crazy Ed's
> strikes me as a novelty, kind of like a worm in a tequila
> bottle or something.

Agreed. It's just not a very good beer and they could probably
achieve the same flavor while leaving the chile itself out.

We were at Cave Creek 6 or 7 years ago. Kind of a neat place,
actually. More of a compound than a brewery. I was surprised
at their use of open fermenters with little other than a mostly-
open screen door between them and the Great Unwashed.

We had lunch - don't remember if it was any good (I think it
was) and a Porter that was a little thin. The waitstaff was
pushing the chile beer *hard*. A family of about 8 cleancut
people sat near us and the waitron got them to buy a round.
Before the bottles showed up I whispered: "Heh! Watch this."
There was one young fellow who was going to choke his down,
dammit, and he did. But the other 7 took a sip and set it down,
not to be touched again.

You gotta wonder what the reasoning is behind foisting something
on people that they are almost guaranteed to not like. It's not
like it's the only beer they make.


Scott Kaczorowski
Long Beach, CA