Mole.....in a beer!

New Holland Brewery have just released El Mole Ocho, and of course being huge fans of mole Mr Cicerone and I tasted our bottle over the weekend. I had prepared a rich braised lamb shank stew (with a "needed to be drunk" oldish bottle of Bell's Hell Hath No Fury incorporated into the braising stock), and although the dish had no specific tie-in flavours with the mole beer, we decided to give it a go anyway.
Wow. First flavour that came through was jalapeno. The flavour, not the heat. Next, chocolate, and a long finish of malty sweetness with a note of coffee. The beer was fine with our lamb, but didn't necessarily create fireworks, so we saved some for dessert, and tasted it again with a scoop of both chocolate and coffee ice cream. Eureka! Score!