Ingredient insights: Dogfish Head releases beer with basically Mace Brand pepper spray

Warning: May only attract (not repel) unwanted parties.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is known for creating beer brands with zany ingredients, and the Delaware-based brewery just announced another off-the-wall experiment called In Your Mace!, brewed for the Beer Advocate Extreme Beer Fest in Boston. A dark roasty beer with a tan head, In Your Mace! is a coffee milk stout brewed with cinnamon verum chips from the Zanzibar Islands, mace spice, milk sugars, coffee, chicory and, most importantly, chili oils, the active ingredient in Mace Brand (yes, the pepper spray). Brewed to ignite your love for off-centered beers, In Your Mace! will be pouring at all three sessions of the Extreme Beer Fest beginning Friday, Feb. 2, through Sat., Feb 3. It will also be available on draft at the Dogfish Head Tasting Room in Milton, Del., and there will be a super limited 750-ml bottle release of 200 bottles on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 11 a.m. Only two bottles available per person, folks.

Sam Calagione, CEO and founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, dreamt up this far out beer concept with high school pal, Eric Crawford, vice president of sales of Mace Security International Inc. Reminiscing ‘bout the good old days over a couple beers while planning their trip to Boston for the city’s annual Extreme Beer Fest, Calagione and Crawford thought it would be great fun to brew an envelope-pushing beer together using adventurous culinary ingredients, like chicory, coffee and milk sugars and two varieties of mace. The first being mace the spice which is the outer hull of nutmeg shell, and the other is the mighty, all-natural pepper oils found in Mace Brand pepper spray.

“We’re always in search of unique, avant-garde, experimental beer ideas that push the boundaries of traditional brewing while still delivering rich aromas, flavor profiles and culinary ingredients that Dogfish beer fans count on and love,” said Calagione. “In Your Mace! is one of our most fun and personal partnerships to date, and I’m super proud of this small-batch team up with our friends at Mace Brand pepper spray. Any day we get to brew a beer wearing full body suits, face masks and respirators is a memorable day in the brewhouse.”

Clocking in at 5 percent ABV/35 IBUs, this smoky, moderately sweet stout gives off spicy nutmeg, anise and espresso aromas with a palette-warming chili spiced finish. Calagione, Crawford and the Dogfish brewers used the primary ingredient in Mace Brand pepper spray, oleoresin capsicum (a food grade version of chili oils), that won’t burn your palette but still has noticeable heat. In its raw form, the pepper oils used in In Your Mace! are so extreme — the team needed to wear protection gear to brew with it!

“When Sam and I cooked up this idea, I think everyone at the table thought it was crazy. But in his typical fashion, Sam wouldn’t let a good idea go! At Mace Brand, we focus on empowering people and helping them to feel safe and happy in their everyday life. In that way, Mace Brand and Dogfish have a very similar mission so this collaboration makes perfect sense. Of course, we don’t want anyone to spray pepper spray in their beer. That’s not what this is about. It’s about friendship, flavor and fun for fans of Dogfish and Mace Brand,” said Crawford.