Victory At Sea - Peanut Butter
Ballast Point Brewing Company

 

 

 

Poured from a bomber into a Dogfish Head tulip

L: Inky black pour with thick foamy mocha head. Great lacing.

S: Sweet and roasty. Peanut butter and coffee.

T.F: Roasted barley/grains. Strong cocoa and espresso... lighter peanut butter. Pleasant and fortunately not overwhelming. The roast and coffee take center stage. Some sweetness but with plenty of bitter roast for balance. Medium bodied... smooth carbonation. A bit of nut/peanuts at the finish.

O: A big delicious porter. Solid flavor and I like that the PB wasn't over the top. A nice addition to the 'Victory at Sea' lineup.

 

 

Bottom line, I guess I'm not that much of a fan of peanut butter in beer. Now the specifics.
Opened with hardly a sound. I thought it might be completely dead, but it is not. Although, the head is small and moves to a ring only very quickly. Peanut butter aroma right away and stays throughout. There is also some rounding sweet chocolate and coffee included. In whole all right but the pb dominates.
I'm surprised on the bitterness on this. Must be intentional as it is so sharp. It does cut the richness of the other flavors some, so that is good, but my it's very apparent and quite unexpected and hangs on and on. There is complexity to the drink with all the notes identified in the aroma making an appearance clearly. The pb is less distracting in the taste than the aroma.
Body is rich but a little thinner than I expected and more flat, as would be expected based upon the opening. Having said that, I don't mind. Alcohol is not readily apparent, but I'm sure I'll feel a beer this big in time.
I'm a fan of this brewery and the Victory at Sea, in general. But this is not something that rings my bell. Now let's hope the coffee doesn't keep me up tonight.
Thanks Bry.

 

2015 vintage; drank 12/29/15 on draft @ Fountainhead.

Black/brown appearance.

Dark tan head; decent lace.

Peanut butter, burnt caramel & vanilla notes in the nose.

Thick, creamy mouthfeel.

Cream, vanilla & milk chocolate flavors up front; dry peanut butter & chalk notes on the finish. No booze heat.

Interesting but a bit too sweet for me.

 

This is a nice break from Victory At Sea Coffee and Vanilla Porter, and is quite enjoyable. It is the best peanut butter beer I have ever tasted, by a wide margin. While I enjoy it, sometimes it just makes me want good old plain Victory At Sea. Pleasant, yes! Enjoyable, yes! But there is somehow a reminder when enjoying it, it lacks a bit of the bravado and punch that made the original Victory At Sea a genuine classic American Imperial Porter. OK, that's enough sadness. This is still a damn fine beer.

 

12 oz bottle from the Wall of Beer in Clemson ($2.99).
Good looking body that is clear reddish-brown but so dark that it is nearly opaque. It is topped by a thin tan head that leaves little lacing.
Aroma: roasted peanuts, coffee, dark roasted grains, vanilla, chocolate and alcohol.
Flavor: dark roasted peanuts and coffee dominate but not so much as to prevent a nicely balanced mix. The coffee does build in the aftertaste with repeated sipping while vanilla and toffee are much more subtle.
Full body with near medium carbonation.

Appearance: Pours a jet black and syrupy consistency. Very mild, tan head, but it lingers.
Aroma: Aromas of chocolate milk and peanuts. More peanuts than peanut butter, as the aroma is not too strong. Some coffee bitterness underneath.
Taste: Strong flavors of chocolate milk. Definitely the original hot chocolate too. Some roasted coffee and molasses. Decent amount of hop bitterness, but ultimately the chocolate malt sweetness wins in the end and lingers on the tongue. Peanut butter isn't very appreciable until it lingers on the tongue.
Feel: Heavy bodied. Syrupy. Mild carbonation. Drinks decently bitter, but the chocolate flavor and sweetness wins out. Balanced though, nonetheless.

Overall: An interesting twist on their original imperial porter. Definitely impressively bitter for a porter. Not overly sweet which is nice. The peanut butter is relatively mild. Drinks like a syrupy, milk chocolate and coffee, with a mild peanut butter ice cream aftertaste.

 

 

Pouring from a 12 oz. bottle into a whiskey tumbler glass, this beer pours out dark brown, darker than cola. It forms a thin, khaki colored crown that dissipated quickly.

The nose brings cacao, roasty cold brew coffee and some vanilla. No real peanut butter evident.

The taste offers more of that roasty cold brewed coffee aspect while showing way to a nuttier side. I still don’t know that I would identify it as peanut butter if not told. Sweet layers of chocolate and vanilla. It does have a Reese’s pieces resemblance in there once it warms up a little.

There is some booze showing in this one. It is warm on the back end of things, which I like. Warm on the lips, full bodied and well carbonated. Really smooth coffee, not bitter or acidic.

Overall, I would’ve liked to detect more peanut butter as this is the peanut butter version, but it’s still such a solid beer because of the base. Full bodied and warm for a porter with loads of flavor from coffee, some nuttiness and the sweet layers of chocolate and vanilla.

FORMAT: 12 fl oz brown glass bottle with standard pry-off crown cap.

"Imperial porter." "Porter with coffee & natural flavors."

From their website: "We took our trademark robust porter brewed with Caffè Calabria coffee and vanilla and added peanut butter, adding another level to this roasty, flavorful beer!" 10% ABV. 65 IBUs.

APPEARANCE: ~3cm head height. Khaki in colour. Somewhat creamy, somewhat frothy. ~6+ minute retention.

Body is an opaque cola black. No yeast/lees are visible within.

AROMA: PB2 (that peanut butter powder product), chocolate malt, artificial peanut paste, dark malt sweetness, vanillin, and a hint of coffee roast (but no actual java/coffee aromatics).

Seems artificial, which is off-putting. Suggests a cloyingly sweet beer riddled with additives.

Aromatic intensity is average. Not hoppy, yeasty, or boozy.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Tastes as the aroma suggested, which is to say it's overly sweet, tastes artificial, and is more additive-dominant than beer-like. Chocolate malts and dark malts take a backseat to artificial peanut butter flavour, vanillin/imitation vanilla extract, and a hint of coffee. Lacks any overt hoppy or yeasty notes. Imbalanced given the lack of any bittering ingredients to tackle all the additive and malt-derived sweetness.

Heavy and thick on the palate, rendering it unrefreshing. Smooth, wet, viscous. Not warm or boozy, which is a plus, but a silkier feel and a more medium-bodied mouthfeel would help it aid flavour delivery.

OVERALL: Adding fake peanut butter flavoring to Victory At Sea doesn't improve it, it destroys it. I'm fatigued with these additive-laden high calorie monster stouts & porters, and I can't see how others aren't also. At a minimum, I'd expect a peanut butter beer to deliver genuine peanut butter flavour, but this reeks of artifice and lacks basic balance. I'll manage to finish the bottle in one sitting to my dentist's chagrin, but as a big fan of the base beer I can't recommend this to anyone.

C / AVERAGE