Peanut Butter Cup
Southern Tier Brewing Company

Got in a mixed 6 pack from Fresh Thyme, opened about 1 mo before its “best by” date. Pours thick, dark but little to no head it lacing. Smells and tastes really sweet, too syrupy and cloying for me. Peanut butter taste is notable. No significant bitterness like in many stouts. It was just ok, but won’t go back for more.

A dessert beer extrodinaire...

A solid peanut butter flavoring with an overall malty background. I have to say it was truly delicious and put a great exclamation point to a memorable Christmas Day...

 

 

12 FL OZ bottle
Served in a pint glass

This beer pours black and is topped with an inch of tan head that leaves little lacing.

Sweet smell. It smells like those orange and black wrapped peanut butter candies with a little bit of chocolate.

The flavor is pretty sweet. More chocolate in the taste. The sweet peanut butter flavor is more in the aftertaste. Dessert beer.

Full bodied with a smooth, thick mouthfeel

Pretty sweet.

From Southern Tier Brewing Co comes Peanut Butter Cup. This imperial stout is a member of the aptly named Blackwater series. It's a hefty 10% abv, pours dark brown with a light brown head. The aroma is exceedingly sweet with a trace of peanut butter and the flavor is exactly the same. It's all sweet, with no real bitterness. Unfortunately, the flavor is chemically sweet and it's not great. I'm disappointed in what I'd hoped would be a fun dessert beer.

 

 

Good Stout, definitely hits the peanut butter cup feel. Very thick and somewhat syrupy but a nice sweet and strong stout with a good aroma on the scent as well as going down. Thick but definitely tastes like the heaviness of a peanut butter cup.

 

 

 

Who knew black water could taste so good? Revealing the way that Recee's gets their flavors into those candies, Southern Tier also takes that water and puts it into their beer.

Deep and garnet brown, the almost black Peanut Butter Cup stout barely floats a fine espresso creme before drawing in the senses with soothing fresh roasted peanut, dark chocolate, caramel and vanilla. In similar taste, a malty sweet upstart of caramel, chocolate and vanilla go so far as to suggest a nearly cola-like taste.

With the rise of peanuts, a true peanut flavor forms on the middle palate, and unlike the common peanut butter fudge character of the candy filling. Chocolate is dark, bittersweet and coffee-like; and pulls away from the peanuts for a separated taste of what's peanut and what's cocoa. Trending bitter and roasty, the late taste carries a more bitter coffee flavor that detracts from the popular candy effects- all on route to a following sweetness of cola.

Full bodied, sweet early and trailing bitter late, the stout barely misses the mark on its intended effects, but is still a nice beer that's less sultry or irresistible than others in the Black Water series.

12 oz bottle
10.0% ABV
Best by: 03/14/25
$14.49 4-pk @ Publix

AROMA: Sweet with generous scents of peanut butter and chocolate followed by a light scent of milk, vanilla and alcohol. It smells somewhat the same as opening a package of the candy, but not exactly the same. I think the candy has a bit more peanut butter aroma than this beer. Nevertheless, it is a joyous aroma.

APPEARANCE: Pours an opaque black with a (just barely) 1-finger head whose froth is a bit loose and dissipates quickly with no lacing. The beer itself, looks great. The fleeting head, not so much.

TASTE: The first sip is nothing but intense sweetness. No distinct flavors, just sweetness. After sitting on the tongue for a bit, I start to get flavors of chocolate and peanut butter, but they are a bit muddled as they are drowned out by the sweetness level. Did I mention it was sweet? Oddly enough the most distinct flavors I get are during the finish, where I get much, much, lower levels of sweetness and nice flavors of coffee and milk. Additionally, I don't find it to taste anything like the candy.

MOUTHFEEL: Full-bodied with a creamy, smooth texture that imparts a very luxurious feel. I would rate carbonation as average. Any more carbonation, and it would certainly ruin the luscious, creamy texture. Texture-wise this beer is a winner.

OVERALL: I've had other beers in this series and have always found them to be very enjoyable and, flavor-wise, very similar to the food they were trying to emulate (e.g. Thin Mint cookies, Crème Brûlée, etc.). However, this beer just doesn't measure up to those. It is WAY too sweet to be enjoyable. The sweetness is so overpowering that I can't even taste the base stout beer (which has been very good in the other versions of their beers). On top of that, it doesn't taste anything like a Peanut Butter Cup, so I can't even give it points for being "playful". Sorry to say, but I won't be buying this again. However, I will continue to try others in the series because this is the only "miss" I've encountered so far. As an aside, if you get the chance, I highly recommend you try their Thick Mint. You won't be sorry.

 

 

Southern tier is usually a pretty solid beer. But this beer doesn’t live up to my expectations. I had a slight peanut butter taste on the first sip, the rest tasted like a peanut butter coke along with the rough feeling of a warm coke.

Bottled on 3/14/24; consumed on 7/8/24

Pours a deep, murky brown body topped with a finger of creamy, beige-tinged foam; solid head retention leaves a slim layer of cap, large, frothy collar, and comprehensive layering of chunky, webby lacing encircling the walls of the glass.

Aromas butterscotch burst forth as notes of roasted peanuts trends artificial, peaking with vanilla extract while shreds of metallic roast linger over the back end of the bouquet.

Taste offers confectioners sugar dominating upfront, leaving predominant vanilla extract lingering over the mid-palate to toasty cereal grain and peanut dust on the latter half of the profile.

Mouthfeel brings a body on the lighter end of medium and moderate-full carbonation; a mild roast is cut with creamy trends, through the mid-palate, remaining soft in texture into a relatively taut finish.

Intensely artificial and cloyingly sloppy, this lazy white sugar dump into a careless stout base is rife with issues far from innocuous enough to ignore; a tough drink for any fan of peanut (butter) adjuncting, or stouts in general.

12 oz bottle poured into a tulip glass. Am I smelling salted caramel? Or popcorn butter? I'm not 100% sure - maybe both. There's also a roasty peanut butter element, as well as milk chocolate. And dark roasted malts, and a bit of coffee too. It's a lot to process, plus it is VERY sweet. Overall, I think it works - but it could be better, if the sweetness was dialed back and the popcorn butter component was somehow eliminated. I can definitely understand how this is a polarizing beer.

This beer is sweet. I can appreciate a pastry stout but this is too much. I cannot taste anything other than sugar.