Maple Nut Smasher
Willoughby Brewing

2018 vintage; consumed on 3/11/2022

Pours a flatly black body with vague chestnut highlights and topped with a finger of fluffy deep tan foam, fading steadily to a few spotty, paper-thin islands of cap, a larger, frothy collar, and a multitude of layers of dense, webby lacing spread across the walls of the glass.

Aromas of charry maple upfront bring a sweeter, nutty roast phasing to green pepper with lighter coffee shreds interspersed; dark chocolate finds distant wisps of peanut butter amplified slightly over time by a coating of richer maple, an overall sweetness progressively balanced and detailed by an ever-present roast.

Taste brings milk chocolate and peanut butter immediately apparent into shreds of maple imparted throughout, peaking with tones of cocoa granola, subtle vanillins, and burnt hazelnut while a building, roasty char balances the back end and a peanut dusting returns on the finish.

Mouthfeel features a body on the lighter side of medium, with moderate carbonation dispersing a fluffy, light prickle toward a charry bittering over the mid-palate, drying steadily into the back end as a semi-creamy texture and silky grit wash over the finish.

Nearly 4 years in the bottle has seen the coffee largely turn to green pepper, though is amply compensated by a resounding roast, an omnipresent counterbalance to the sweeter fusion of peanut butter, maple, and chocolate; a beer on its last legs and still largely enjoyable, it persists in expressing shreds of Willoughby's seamless ability to effectively blend sweeter adjuncts with a more traditional roast profile.

 

 

1 PINT 6 FL. OZ. bottle
Served in a Willoughby Brewing snifter

This beer pours black and is topped with an inch of tan head that leaves spotty lacing.

I can smell the peanut butter right away. The maple is faint but present. The chocolate and coffee compliment the peanut butter quite nicely.

The peanut butter, chocolate, and coffee are all in the taste. The coffee flavor leaves a little bitterness in the finish. The maple has all but disappeared from the taste.

Full bodied with smooth mouthfeel

I like it better now than I did on draft when I purchased this bottle. I thought it was a little too sweet fresh. The faded maple lets all the other flavors shine.

 

 

 

Tasted from bottle 2018 edition. Black with beige head. Aroma of peanuts, coffee and cocoa. Don’t get the maple on aroma. Moderately sweet and bitter. Not an overpowering peanut butter flavor definitely present with a nice maple flavor to follow. Well balanced with the coffee and chocolate along with a slight bit of caramel. Very nice beer.

DLD -- 5/19/2018

 

 

This has that sticky, very lightly smoky but sweet Aunt Jemima note that Smells Like Bean Spirit has, still allowing some room for creamy peanut butter on the back end with a good froth and a paper dry finish. It's not cloying and to some the maple wasn't there enough, but it was just fine for me. Not my favorite variant but enjoyable still.

 

On draft. Darker black body. Smell is heavy roasted coffee bean, nutty with a very light maple presence. I had to search more for the maple; I was hoping for something on the level of Mornin' Delight with nuts but ultimately this was a coffee forward stout. Full bodied, good carbonation, roast on the finish. Roast all the way through, kind of detracted from the already excellent regular Nut Smasher, in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

Very dark pour with little head. Smell is phenomenal. Had 4 Nutsmasher variants sitting side-by-side (regular, Vietnamese Coffee, Vietnamese Coffee w/ Vanilla, and Maple) sitting side by side, and as soon as it was put down I could easily pick out the maple. Maple is obvious in the taste, but not overwhelming. It takes the edge off of the coffee, chocolate, and peanut butter without eliminating any of them. Maple and coffee as most prominent and integrated beautifully. Mouth could be a little thicker, but this is a tremendous beer, and by far my favorite of the Nutsmasher variants.