Peanut Butter Hazelnut Caramel Chocolate Cake Stout
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

 

Pulling out all the stops, Hoppin' Frog sees the world as their pantry when forming the recipe for their pastry influenced stout. Chocolate cake, peanut butter, hazelnut and caramel should be enough to tug on every sweet tooth in the craft beer community.

Peanut Butter Hazelnut Caramel Chocolate Cake Stout isn't just a mouthful to say, but also fills the nose with a host of savory, sweet, pastry decadence and cakey aromas that transport the senses to the pastry shop. With a loosely knit froth fades, the flavors set in with caramelized cola, chocolate, hazelnut, peanut and vanilla. With a lacking malt support, the mouthfeel falls flat and fails to uphold the pastry textures that the flavors and aromas promise. A fade into cola and kahlua frame a toasty and roasty finish with a bold coffee after palate.

Full bodied, flavorful and full flavored, the ale simply needs more heft, roundness and creaminess to compete with most pastry stouts on the market.

12oz can poured into

A- pours jet black in color with a one-finger creamy khaki head that reduces to a thin film

S- aroma really comes through with the peanut butter and chocolate. Many peanut stouts have just a generic roast note but this is spot on. Undertones of hazelnut coffee, caramel, toffee, fantastic

T- opens with a wave of sweet chocolate, immediately followed by roasted peanuts. Mid-palate brings out a bold hazelnut note that reminisces hazelnut coffee. Caramel and toffee as it nears the finish, with the peanut and hazelnut lingering long after

M- medium body with moderate carbonation leads to a foamy mouthfeel that turns silky into the finish

 

Dark, brown color. Medium-sized, beige head. Chocolate, roasted malt, peanut, and hazelnut in the aroma. The same notes follow into a moderately sweet, malty taste. Roasted bitterness at the end.

At the brewery on our annual Christmas trip to Cleveland, Jan 2025!

Exactly as stated! This is almost like drinking a hazelnut mocha from Starbucks....on steroids, thank you very much!

It's sweet but not as overtly as expected. It's quite drinkable, but at 8%, I'll stick to the 5oz pour.

 

Looks good, blackish color with tan foam. That's where the fun ends. Smells a sweet, caramel mess and tastes even worse. Too much going on and my taste buds were so confused they gave up. Not impressed.

Pours a dark cola brown and settles almost black in the glass with a sudsy tan head. The nose is dominated by the hazelnut and peanut butter, which is also where the taste lands. This is a really nice cake stout.

De BeerRepublic. En copa Teku. Jugando a South Park Fractured but Whole Casa Bonita DLC. Con papas fritas de umbrete. Avellana y chocolate bien integrados en una imperial stout densa pero de trago facil y, desde luego, pastelosa

 

Poured from a 12 oz can w/ bbd of March 2027. Thick and black with a brown head that disappears too fast and doesn’t leave any lace - might be too cold. Taste hits all four flavors which is pretty impressive. They’re all there and they’re all good. Mouthfeel was a bit thin for me. It’s a good not great pastry stout

Poured from a 12-oz can well within its date range into a snifter.

Look: Very dark brown to black — totally opaque, with a very small light brown head that dissipated quickly and left a little lacing.

Nose: Caramel corn, chocolate, hazelnut, a little peanut butter — all very pleasant and rather sweet — actually turned out to be my favorite aspect of this beer.

Mouthfeel: Medium thick, and plenty of carbonation — perhaps a little too much.

Attack: Very complex: follows the nose, with the addition of dark roast. Sweet but not cloyingly so.

Finish: Bitterness from the roast to balance.

Overall: I’m enjoying it as a dessert beer, though there are others I probably enjoy more. The four or more flavors combined is perhaps a bit much. I’ll enjoy the rest of the four-pack, perhaps one every few months (and the generous “Best By” date permits that), but I’m not sure I’ll buy another. Hoppin’ Frog is a truly great brewery; this just isn’t my most favorite of their brews.

12 ounce can, best before date of MAR 28 2027 stamped on the bottom of the can. Served in a chalice, the beer pours dark brown/black with about an inch and a half frothy tan head that stayed around for a long time. Decent amount of lacing. I like the aroma, the brew smells like caramel, peanut butter, milk chocolate, hazelnuts and a bit of roasted malt. Taste is similar to the aroma, but with the addition of some coffee, dark bread and burnt/charred malt flavors. It still leans sweet tasting, but it wasn't quite as sweet tasting as the aroma led me to think it would be. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's a bit creamy and coating with a moderate amount of carbonation. I liked this one, certainly worth trying if you like pastry stouts!

 

 

weird one, sounds like too many things, and it kind of is because i think the peanut butter part is a little out of whack. to me it has that powdered peanut butter thing so many breweries use now, and it takes away from the authenticity, a shame because the rest of this is cool, cohesive even for bringing so many elements together, and i like it not being super strong, so many of these run huge but this one stays reasonable. i also think im just super sensitive to this peanut thing, like its not dominant in this or anything, i just cant get past it once i identify it, my own problem because this really is quite tasty. nice roast keeping it from running away is super sugary, sweet but not over the top, some bitterness, light smoke, needed. the hazelnut feels more authentic, the caramel part seems malt derived or at least is real compatible with the middle grains in this, again not sticking to my teeth but rich enough to get the point across, brown sugar here too. chocolate is well integrated, luxurious in flavor and feel, and i really like the hazelnut aspect, its great with the dark barley and its not out of place at all, even if ive never really hears of a cake with all these things in it and on it. kind of a rocky road vibe here, and i could see this going real well in a barrel too, would like to try that edition as well, it already is kind of woody to me, and there is a vanilla wrinkle as well. interesting stuff, without the powdered peanut butter thing id like it even more. good to have some beer from these guys though, its been way too long!

Received a can from a friend 3-10-23. No can date; consumed 1-25-24. I recall a drop from Hoppin' Frog at Fresh Market about a year ago so likely a 2022 can.

Beer poured dark brown with a very nice tan head.

Nose is hazelnut forward with a touch of peanut butter on the back end.

Taste is nicely layered. Initial sips were hazelnut dominate but the cake layers slowly appeared with the caramel first, the peanut butter, and finally the chocolate cake. Finishes sweet as imagined but not cloyingly so.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and fairly smooth.

Overall this is a nicely crafted beer, good in small doses!

Got in a BIF from ozzylizard. 16 ounce can into pint glass, best before 11/10/2024. Pours nearly opaque dark brown/black color. Nice head retention and lacing for the style. A foamy head. A fantastic stout. Aromas of big caramel, milk chocolate, toffee, hazelnut, and herbal hops. Tastes follows through with milk chocolate, cocoa, toffee, hazelnut, peanuts, caramel, toffee, herbal, grass, light pepper/pine, and yeast/char earthiness. Light-med pine/herbal/char bitterness on the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full body. Creamy silky bready malts with lingering sticky hop and chalky char dryness. No acrid astringency. Minimal warming of 8%. Amazing balance of all flavors with hop bitterness. No cloying on adjunct flavors etc. Loved it.

Pours out lighter than some stouts, still opaque in the glass with a khaki head. Very sweet on the nose, leads with caramel and hazelnut, vanilla and milk chocolate. Nutty, rich, and sweet. Medium mouthfeel, sticky, a bit cloying.