Stone Crime Lucky Bastard Beer 2015

After Lukcy was released, some barrels of it were stowed for future use, a massive dose of peppers – including California red and green Jalapeño, Black Naga, Moruga Scorpion, and African Fatali – was tossed into the tanks and the resulting evil elixir was then aged an additional 60+ days in Kentucky Bourbon barrels. If this makes your extremities tingle a bit, rest assured that just reading the fact sheet did the same to me. I’m a rabid fan – no, lover – of pepper ales and I mean that “lover” much the same way you’d mean it in talking about an old flame. I find the things – if they’re well-made, of course – feverishly compelling. The last rhapsody I had here was for the Elysian “12 Beers of the Apocalypse” May edition, “Peste”, a glorious, intense chocolate-chili ale. “Crime”, I am happy to report, is maybe even better.

Start out with Lukcy Basartd, that insane, wildly-excessive, genre-smashing miracle, with a savage hops profile and uber-chewy malts. Now, add a generous, warm, sweetish barrel character that tastes like coconut cream pie with one sip, a caramel latte with the next, and vanilla cream soda after that, and then all of those at once. On top of that whole landslide of sensory stimulation, the smoke, meat, and heat of the peppers begins and builds with deceptive stealth, blossoming on the finish as if you had sipped grain alcohol and then swallowed a match…only not quite.