Chocolate Peanut Butter Native Trails
Latitude 33 Brewing Company

Ahh... Chocolate peanut butter. The style everyone tries, for some absolutely insane reason, but no one ever gets right.

Pours like a nice porter: very dark red with a retentive, chocolate brown head.

Smells like it's picked up a bit of metallic aging from the can over overall you get run of the mill milk chocolate with a bit of peanuttiness. It's nice, but probably shouldn't age.

Tastes like it smells: metallic throughout, but otherwise a nicely brewed stout with some nutty malt nodes.

 

16oz can - not much to say about this one ahead of time, so let's just get at 'er.

This beer pours a fairly solid black colour, with subtle cola basal edges, and a teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and sort of shiny beige head, which leaves some decent splotchy webbed lace around the glass as it slowly sinks away.

It smells of gritty chunky peanut butter, bittersweet cocoa powder, biscuity caramel malt, vanilla wafers, and a bit of indistinct earthy hop bitterness. The taste is grainy and bready caramel malt, some free-range ashiness, dried peanut butter, low-sugar chocolate, kind of boozy real vanilla, a touch of cafe-au-lait, and some still hard to parse green and bitter hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-pleasing frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and mostly smooth, but for a weird bitter thing that increases in intensity as things warm up a tad around here. It finishes trending dry, the malt bottoming out, while that (hop?) acridity solidifies its hold.

Overall - this one starts off quite promisingly, but lags rather consistently towards the end. I'm taking the optimist's viewpoint in saying that's not a bad thing, as one gets a range of flavours, from confection to bitter ale, all in one package. Worthy of checking out.

 

Type: 16-oz. can
Glass: Clear 14.75-oz. porter/stout tulip
From: Windmill Farms in Allied Gardens (San Diego), Calif.
Price: $2.49
Purchased: March 3, 2018
Consumed: March 28, 2018
Reviewed as: American Porter
Misc.: No canned on date

Had never heard of Latitude 33 deciding to release different styles of Native Trails (which I had never tried) prior to having the Black & Blue one on March 3. Love this vastly underrated brewery and was happy to see a few new beers from them on a recent visit to Windmill Farms. Liked the Black & Blue one, giving it a 4.18. Can described this as, “Join us on a rotating flavor experiment. In this leg of the journey, Native Trails has tantalizing notes of perfectly-paired, luscious chocolate and peanut butter. We mix it up every couple of months, so get it while you can and be on the lookout for the next unparalleled adventure.” Let’s go.

Poured a very dark color with three fingers of khaki tan frothy head. Could see a few bubbles coming up from the bottom of the glass. World-class foamy lacing. World-class retention. (Sight - 4.50)

Smelled creamy peanut butter, chocolate milk, espresso, vanilla, caramel, toffee, chocolate syrup, roasted (honey) nuts and buttered popcorn. Surprisingly not as good on the nose from the can. (Smell - 4.00)

Taste followed the nose, but maybe more roasty notes. Got creamy peanut butter, roasted nuts, hazelnut, caramel popcorn, toffee, espresso, vanilla and semi-dark chocolate syrup. (Taste - 3.75)

Full body. Sticky texture. Average carbonation. Creamy finish. Got better as it went down. (Feel - 4.00)

Liked this one, but it wasn’t as good as the Black & Blue. Very good. (Overall - 4.00)

3.93 | 88 | B+

 

Poured from a 16 oz can.
The nose bursts forth with rich peanut butter upon the initial pfst of the top. Wow. Phenomenal nose. An ever so subtle roasted malt peeks through as well, but really blends in with the peanut butter. It's how I would guess a peanut butter would smell if somebody slightly over roasted the nuts.
Pour is a deep, inviting brown that pushes up a milk stout like head, sandy to cocoa colored.
But back to the nose. So inviting. There is a subtle hint of warm, round vanilla, but what comes through now is a graceful hint of maple. This dance goes around and around. I've been sniffing this for about 5 minutes now. I still love it. Now, I'm reticent. Too many times I have been let down after such a blissful aroma. Well, here we go.
Initially, it's a smooth almost fruity porter. Then moves toward a greener coffee. Still sweet, but lightly astringent. Not off putting, but, hmm. Chocolate notes are very subdued. Peanut butter barely present. Half way through it now, and it's a tad earthy. Finally, it finishes with the most tepid peanut butter note and diluted coffee roast. Not bad, not great by any stretch. But no where near the glorious nose.
Mouthfeel is low carbonation, and lite in the mouth.
Overall, if they could hit half of what they did in the nose, I'd keep this on standby in my beer fridge. It does not live up to the heavenly nose, and that's a little sad. Not bad, just not great.