A G.
Yelp
We frequented Bad Beat while it was in this location and the new business Neon Desert were kind enough to honor the rest of their "mug club" memberships. We stopped by and tried a few glasses and a 4-beer flight to try their options. They were all wonderful, just like BB was before them.
Flight: Sin City Amber, Scotch 80's Edinburgh, Cocconillacan, 11 Circles of Helles.
Pours: Dunkelzahn's Secret (mug), Their raspberry lemonade (I don't think it was called Punk Lemonade) that was first tapped May 10th.
All very good.
The wife enjoyed the amber, which is rare for her. If it's not tart and fruity, she doesn't like it. She said it felt like a refreshing summer beer in her tastes.
The scotch was great, I enjoyed the flavors. As expected, but done well.
I'm a dark beer guy, and love stouts, but I'm NOT a coconut guy. The stout had a sweet forward coconut, a little chocolate perhaps, and then a finish that was a bit more bitter than the sweetness prepared you for. Wife liked the first sip, but not so much the aftertaste. I was the opposite.
The dunkel was wonderful. Exactly perfect, exactly what I both expected and wanted. It was great. It was the kind of beer I could drink daily and not get tired of it.
Her lemonade concoction was good. Tart from the lemonade, with a fresh strawberry finish. I thought it was good, but tarts aren't my thing. She adored it.
Now let's talk 11 Helles. Wtf, I loved it, but I can see how many people wouldn't. I spoke with a brewer and he explained that they used whatever peppers were fresh and available. This batch was made with ghost, reaper, and pepper X--the hottest options. You order by spice number, 1-11. They dilute the full octane 11 to make your lower choices. I didn't catch what it was diluted with, another beer in the same class. I'm a spice guy. I eat ghost pepper and reaper sauce regularly, but I also know some of those sauces can dumb down the spice (still, few friends can regularly handle my sauces). This isn't a brag, just and explanation. At the brewer's recommendation, I started at 5. It was spicy, yes, but no more than what I'd consider an average hot sauce--my average hot sauce. The wife's eyes watered and she asked why I hated her.
I went back up for an 11 because of morbid curiosity and natural heat-seeking tendencies. After the 5, I couldn't get much more spice or burn. It was good, it was hot, but it didn't feel twice as hot. Perhaps I was burned out.
The flavor was great, honestly. It smelled almost like a jalapeno popper. A fresh one. Fresh pepper and something else, cooked. The flavor was pure fresh pepper. It was very good.
My burn was experienced at the back of my throat. A high-heat but still comfortable burn, not anything like heartburn or reflux, but a spice burn at the bottom of the throat. I rather enjoyed it.