Here's Burnside's description, from the side of the bottle:
Sweet Heat is a wheat beer with an addition of 200 pounds of apricots, then dry hopped with imported Jamaican scotch bonnet peppers. Reminiscent of a Caribbean chutney, Sweet Heat has a subtle tartness from the fruit with a slight spiciness from the peppers which also adds a fruitiness to the aroma. Excitedly, the heat may vary due to the nature of the pepper.
That description is pretty spot-on. The heat, but more importantly, the sweetness and fruitness of the scotch bonnet peppers really shines through in this beer. As a spicy food fanatic, I absolutely love this beer style.
I'm giving it the same score (4.5/5) that I gave
Calapooia's chili beer last year, but I actually think I like Burnside's variant better -- the scotch bonnet and apricot sweetness take a little bit of the "edge" off, and really helps to balance everything out. I considered a perfect 5/5, but this beer packs quite a flavor-punch, and I'm not sure I could drink more than a pint or two of this in a night. Then again, Burnside Brewery
is on my commute home, so perhaps I need to stop by for a session one night and test that theory...