Peanut Butter Jelly Pie
SoMe Brewing Company

 

 

 

I was always meh about the original Whoopie Pie Stout from this rather average brewery, but the last couple variants I've had, including the fantastic Gingerbread version, have been freaking great and a huge improvement. The regular Peanut Butter Whoopie was pretty decent, but fell a little short of a lot of other peanut butter stouts I've had of late. This style really rocketed into popularity following the success of Gunner's Daughter by Mast Landing, and I've seen a lot more PB beers recently. Not complaining because I tend to love them, but this one also features raspberry which is intriguing. Widowmaker and Second Wind Brewing collab'd last year to make a beer called Bastards in a Basket, which was a peanut butter jelly sour, and it was easily one of my favorite beers of 2020, so I'm hoping this one presents a more "stout-like" play on that concept.

The pour is pretty damn good-looking, and I recall saying the same thing about the Gingerbread Whoopie. It's a near-black liquid topped off with a generous, retentive head that lasts and lasts, leaving behind some really great lacing and awesome legs as it slowly recedes to the edges of my glass. A very nice stout pour, so you can tell the base beer is probably well-built... many adjunct-laden stouts these days have weak pours that I always assume can be partially blamed on the adjuncts themselves reducing retention or whatnot. Not so here!

The nose is pretty nice... definite dark fruit and jam upfront with toasted bread crust, cocoa powder, and a hint of roasted peanuts sorta coming across as it warms a little. It's not a "hit you over the head" smell, nor is it really demure or anything, just kind of middling. Not a bad thing, just a note. Perhaps a hint of herbal qualities and, unfortunately, a touch of a metallic hint as well, but you can't always win. Something here is really working for me, though, even in spite of that element; perhaps it's how cohesive and evocative this smells?

The flavor profile is pretty good but falls short when it comes to the thin and weak mouthfeel. Perhaps it was intentional to get it to feel a bit more "airy" or something, but it doesn't satisfy like it should. Pretty good roast profile, though, and the nuttiness is there along with a bit of a tart berry jam toward the mid-palate. Some blueberry and currant notes, too; kinda pulpy, grassy, and stemmy with a "seedy" texture to it, like drinking fresh-pressed raspberry juice without filtering it at all. It's authentic, sure, but maybe a bit too much in a way? The peanut butter flavor is a little muted, and I could stand to see it bumped up if they make this again, though I think I felt the same way with the regular Peanut Butter Whoopie. Good but not great. I would give it a shot again if they tweaked it though!