Guest Video Review by Tom The Beer Whisperer
It pays to have friends in high places. In this case, I mean high as in further north, and the friend is good old Tom Mulvihill of Missouri. I’m on my third brew from Mother’s brewing Company of Springfield, Missouri as I type, and I can’t even get their beers here in Georgia. See what I mean about having friends? And a friend that provides beer is a good friend indeed.
Tonight’s beer is Mother’s Holy Mole, which Mothers describes as “ale with cocoa nibs, cinnamon bark and peppers.” Here’s how they describe it on the label:
Inspired by traditional mole sauces, Holy Mole balances cocoa nobs, cinnamon bark, and dried ancho, pasilla, chipotle, and guajillo chili peppers with a medium-bodied brown beer. The result is a very drinkable beer that’s more about flavors than heat, yet the peppers bite a bit more with each tasty sip.
Ok, fair enough. In case you don’t know what mole is, well, here you go. Mole (pronounced mole-ay) is a very popular type of Mexican sauce that comes in a number of varieties. Everybody knows about guacamole, though that’s more of a dip than a sauce, but when I think about mole I think about “mole poblano”, the reddish brown, spicy sauce that’s great on all sorts of dishes. A classic mole poblano sauce is made with chili peppers and chocolate, and Mother’s Holy Mole is too.
Mother’s Holy Mole is not a huge beer at 5.5% alcohol by volume and has 24 IBUs. There is some kind of freshness dating on the neck of my bottle, but I can’t make it out.
Mother’s Holy Mole pours to a dark brown color with a thick, very prodigious head formation and a gentle brown sugar and cinnamon nose. Taking a sip, I get a medium dark brown maltiness up front with more of the sweet brown sugar that the nose promised followed by some very light cinnamon hot ball candy flavor and, at the last, some gentle peppery heat. Underneath it all the cocoa comes out, but like all of the other flavors, that seems a bit restrained as well. On the plus side, the fact that this is so subtle means it is balanced nicely and nothing overpowers, but it also leaves me wanting more of everything. The peppery heat does balance off the cocoa and light sweetness in the finish, and leaves the beer lingering pleasantly on the palate. It comes out more as the beer warms.
I am certainly enjoying Holy Mole, but when I compare it to other mole Beers it does come up lacking. To be fair, Mothers appears to be going for a more drinkable mole brew by design. While Mother’s Holy Mole doesn’t pack the cinnamon, chocolate and chili punch of say, New Holland Mole Ocho or my personal favorite New Belgium Lips of Faith Cocoa Mole, it’s alos about three percentage points lower in alcohol than those beers and consequently of lower gravity.
All that said I would certainly pick it up again were it sold in my area as a drinkable brew with solid flavor and subtle spice.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft