Rating: 5/5

Chicken Killer by Santa Fe Brewing is a 10% ABV American BarleyWine.

Label:
Chicken Killer Barley Wine is the revolutionary beer that will someday define America’s unique Barley Wine style. Chicken Killer is brewed with twice the ingredients of the Santa Fe Brewing Company’s other products, and only half the usual amount of liquid is extracted from these ingredients. This makes one serious ale. At ten percent alcohol, Chicken Killer is actually as substantial as wine, but this is not to say that it is difficult to drink. On the contrary; be careful with this one. The flavors of the ale are at first as overwhelming as the intense Santa Fe sun. But in the same way our sun gives us the unrivaled brilliant colors of Santa Fe, the potency of Chicken Killer gives us the remarkable spectrum of flavors that can be found in no other ale, in no other city. Check out out website: www.santafebrewing.com
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Chicken Killer comes from New Mexico’s oldest microbrewery. A first time try for me which was provided to the site thanks to Aaron Mendiola of www.beermetaldude.com. This American style barleywine plans on changing the way people view barleywines and maybe unique to how it’s done in New Mexico. With this review, I hope I can showcase what their vision is. It is always nice to put great beers on the map or in this case, the internet for others to know about such beer treasures. Cheers!

Aromas:
Pecan pie flavors, dark fruit raisins, leather, brown sugar, dulce de leche caramel, plums, figs, capirotada raisin bread pudding, citrus, biscuit bread, butterscotch, cinnamon, hints of oak, dark cherry, earthy notes, clove spice, banana, old mango and hazelnut nectar.

Flavors:
Pecan pie, dulce de leche caramel, cinnamon, dark fruit raisins, plums, figs, rye bread, capirotada raisin bread pudding, earthy notes, leather, dark cherries, hints of oak, citrus, tangerine, mandarin preserves on biscuit bread, honey, green tea, peppery spices, bananas, clove spice, piloncillo sugar cone, old mango, strawberry, pitaya (Dragon fruit) and hints of chocolate.

Aftertaste:
Caramel, vanilla, dulce de leche, citrus, earthy hops and some tropic hints. No taste of alcohol in the flavor, a sipping drinkability yet you want to keep drinking, hazy to medium body and full mouth feel.

Overall:
This is a perfect barley wine. It is outstanding! It drinks more along the English Barley wine style so it is definitely sweeter and to some degree, the old ale style. While still maintaining the hop like flavors found in American Barleywines, it finds a way to mesh in the nice flavors I like from sweeter old ales and English Barleywines. Yes, give this one a try, it is great!

Anime Corner:
Carmen Serdan by Genzoman was chosen for this pairing because I wanted to pair the Mexican Revolution attire that was worn in those days as well as the label which shows the similar attire. Also, the fact that the beer tries to show that certain beers can be unique, in this case, barleywines, it goes to show hard the craft beer revolution is working to bring great flavors to the masses as well as inform them that beer can be more than just bitter yellow water. So, synonymously this beer is important to the brewery and so is the meaning. Cheers!

Sources:
Definietely check out Genzoman’s art and description about the artwork about the Mexican Revolution.
http://genzoman.deviantart.com/art/Carmen-Serdan-103601296