Medianoche - Peanut Butter Cup
WeldWerks Brewing Co.

 

 

Tar black pour with a brown cap that settles into a thick collar. Smell leans sweet with chocolate, peanut butter, vanilla, molasses, and booze, with some dark wood and roasted malt to balance enough. Taste is quite an achievement as peanut butter can be tricky, but here it is a decadent dark chocolate peanut butter cup sip after sip. Barrel is a clear supporter, not as deep as others in the MN series but it tastes so good you don't care. Feel is the area for me where this is more notable: heavy, chewy and almost syrupy body with moderate barrel warmth but now nuance. Reminds me of Toppling Goliath

 

Another Thursday, another Medianoche. As long as this 500ML bottle doesn’t cough up a congealed boogie, we’re good.

No hiss upon opening & no bubbles upon the ‘pour’, which is more like pouring a solid than a liquid. The nose is spot-on: bourbon, peanuts, & thickness.

Medianoche – Peanut Butter Cup is an ode to one of my favorite candies of all time; I just finished a bag yesterday. The base stout/barrels are so aggressive it’s hard to get around them. The peanut butter cups are quiet additions, more chocolate than peanut. Vanilla hard candy. This bottle is the max I could put down at one time without my whole mouth being sore from the sweetness.

This beer & every Medianoche revolves around the insanely semi-liquid mouthfeel. A very good beer that needs much more peanut butter cup.

This is my first time trying any version of the legendary Medianoche, a beer supposedly famous for tons of sludge getting caught up in the bottle. It should be interesting to see if that’s the case with this one. Let’s crack it open and find out

Pours completely pitch black with no head and surprisingly no slugs left in the bottle. There are a few little chunks floating around but not much. Obviously no lacing but it has nice legs

While the nose is rather sweet, I’m surprised by the relative balance. I’m picking up on aromas of peanut butter, chocolate fudge, sweet bourbon, burnt caramel, molasses, vanilla bean, red grape, brown sugar, light tobacco, and toasted oak

Things indeed take a sweeter turn in taste, but it’s still pretty damn good for what it is. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting chocolate cake, peanut butter ice cream, vanilla bean, molasses, brown sugar, toasted oak, and sweetened coffee. The swallow brings notes of peanut butter, chocolate fudge, sweet bourbon, charred oak, molasses, brown sugar, raisin, dark roast coffee, red grape, and burnt caramel

A full body pairs with gentle carbonation, resulting in a slick and rich beer. Finishes surprisingly dry but still quite sweet

This is a chore of a beer to drink, but absolutely incredible at the same time. I probably won’t splurge on another but I’m very glad I tried it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020 vintage (released on 10/13/20, so presumably bottled within a few days of that date); consumed on 1/1/21

Pours a sludgy, black body seemingly crawling from bottle to glass, forming ¾ of a finger of jet-mocha foam almost absurdly thick and largely comprised of adjunct particulate; solid head retention yields a glob of cap dead-center, while a thin, bubbly collar circles the surface and gritty particulate coats the walls of the glass in spots.

Aroma offers an airy peanut butter tone with firm, dark chocolate undertones and wisps of bourbon nodding toward the barrel presence; vanilla and subtle caramel develop toward malted cacao over the middle as peanut butter cup notes become more defined over time and quietly dominate the bouquet.

Taste brings a heavy dose of bakers chocolate and a more secondary layering of peanut butter upfront, soon followed by burnt coffee grounds, a tinge of milk chocolate, and a building barrel char bitterness accentuating the mid-palate; burnt dark chocolate further deepens an impact on the back end as fresh peanuts, touches of smoked caramel, and a boozy, bourbon heat finish.

Mouthfeel presents a medium-light body, incredibly viscous with almost milky textures across the entirety of the palate, grazed by a minimal carbonation with a grit steadily coating the palate; a creamy character waves over the back end while maintaining an increasingly charry grit through the finish.

It's not that it tastes too sweet (the barrel is surprisingly balancing); it's that this beer presents a character far too decadent, to the point of excess and disorder; charry malt fights aggressive bourbon while peanut flour adjuncts hit like buckshot across the profile, making its presence felt wherever possible atop an all-too-rich body, and with little tact or focus; ultimately, a boundary pushed too far for a stout in clear need of maintenance.

 

 

 

Very dark appearance with slight dark brown head that appears to be a layer of chocolate. Aroma is a prominent chocolate with a touch of peanut butter. Taste is slightly bitter chocolate with a touch of peanut butter and very solid feel