Drip - Blueberry
Finback Brewery - Glendale

 

 

The can pour is a bit viscous, dark brown with a 1/2 cm foam cap that similarly dark.
The aroma is of toasted malt, blueberry syrup and cacao nibs.
The flavor follows the nose, with malt and sweet blueberry, plus an odd note that I am attributing to cacao.
The mouthfeel is thick ( a bit too much for me) but the flavors persist pleasantly.
This was good to try on a cold rainy day at home.

 

Excellent super thick pastry stout in the Drip series. The blueberry is a bit much, bringing its inimitable semi-sweet tartness to the fore. If you're a huge blueberry fan, this probably appeals to you more, but I prefer the balance from a beer like Lizard of Koz (barrel aging may have helped that one achieve a better overall balance against the blueberries, to be fair).

The peanut butter and coffee together provide a rather bitter metallic tinge after the initial sugars wear off. None of that comes together unpleasantly, but it's simply another aspect that works against this one being truly exceptional. As it is, it's very, very good, and I could see a blueberry fan rating it much higher.

 

 

 

 

This seems like an exciting but very odd idea... a fruited (blueberry) stout with additions of coffee, vanilla, and... peanut butter? I don't even understand what the frame of reference is for this one, but that makes it even more enticing. How do blueberry and peanut butter work together? How does coffee play in? I'm lost... let's figure this one out, shall we?

Pours a scary, pitch-black stout pour topped off with a huge, dense, mocha-colored head growing up to about three fingers before sinking down to a retentive half-finger. Still has that terrifying dark color to the foam even at its reduced size. I'm in for it, aren't I? Awesome lacing and legs here... so far, so good. Pumped! Hopefully they don't screw it up.

Alright, right upfront I smell burnt caramel, dark chocolate, roasted grains, some smoke, coffee, and a light hint of the blueberry. Seems more like a generic dark berry than specifically blueberry, but I can overlook that because this really smells great. The peanut butter comes out pretty strong after this acclimates a bit to room temperature, and I'm just overall quite impressed already. Granted, at this point the berry element has really taken even more of a backseat, so it's more like a coffee PB stout overall, which isn't a bad thing at all, just probably important to point out if you're hoping it'll be fruit forward.

First sip is charred, husky grains, light spice (almost rye-like), caramel and toffee, then into the coffee with soft notes of blueberry-like acidity around the main thrust of dark malt. And then, yep, the peanut butter... wow, this is well-balanced. It almost has a "peanut butter and Fluff" (aka marshmallow creme) element to it, similar to Fluffo Sando by Pipeworks, but it's also nominally drier than that extremely-sweet beer. That's not to say this isn't a sweet stout... it totally is, it's just a bit more balanced and drinkable than what you'd expect given that ingredients list. As it warms, more flavors of melted fudge, sweet sticky caramel candy, and peanut butter cups come out, all helped along by an unusual, piquant spice and a suggestion of stemmy, grassy blueberry. This is rich and decadent, and I'm glad they pulled it off. Surprised, of course, as well, but mostly just happy it rules. Crisis averted in a very delicious way!