Brewer Q & A (Issue 22)

91 Rating – SanTan Brewing Co. – Sex Panther

Responses from SanTan founder and brewmaster Anthony Canecchia.

Who came up with this beer's recipe? 
I did.

What’s your favorite aspect of this beer (flavor, aroma, etc.)?  
The rich, dark unsweetened chocolate flavor. It really complements the nuances of a porter. 

Where does this beer’s name come from?
It was suggested by of my business partners while sitting at the bar. We had been struggling with finding a name for this beer and were never happy with anything that came up until he suggested Sex Panther. After that suggestion, nothing else fit.

Is this your "desert island beer?" 
It certainly could be. There's a lot of cocoa powder in each brew, and the cacao bean is considered a superfood, after all!

Can you describe this beer in 10 words or less? 
Clean dark chocolate flavor from chocolate malt and Ecuadorian cocoa. 

Do you know a story – or have a personal story – that revolves around this beer? 
This beer is hell on our equipment. There's so much cocoa powder that some of it combines with the yeast in the fermenter and wreaks havoc on the filter towards the end of the filtration. This year we purchased a centrifuge and were so overconfident with it that we started to run the first batch through with the tank only having gotten cold the day before, and this beer even bested our centrifuge! We decided to call it a day after unsuccessfully processing a couple hundred gallons. From that point on, we knew this beer just needs to sit a while before it's ready to get to market. It's the only beer that truly tells us when it's ready, not the other way around.