Boris (2020)
Bent Water Brewing Company

 

Canned on 09/12/2022.

Moderate pour yields a one inch tan head over a black body with sticky lacing.

Nose of roasted malt, peanut butter, and a bit of chocolate in that order.

Taste of peanut butter and chocolate milk with a nice bitter hop finish.

Very nice full mouthfeel with medium carbonation.

Overall, a great stab at a peanut butter and chocolate milk stout and would recommend.

Cheers!!

I decided to add this as a totally new entry because, well, it feels like a completely different freaking beer than past years' Boris batches. Indeed, it seems as though Bent Water purposely tweaked this one to make it far stronger (8% instead of 5.8% as with prior years) and changed it from a porter base to a milk stout base. I think that's probably reason enough to consider it a "different" entry, don't you? Now, Boris has long been one of my favorite peanut butter-related dark beers, and I loved it before Mast Landing's Gunner's Daughter, the reigning champion of normal-strength peanut butter milk stouts. I've only ever had Imperial Gunner's Daughter once, and it was glorious, but I'm kinda (maybe somewhat-low-key) hoping this is like a more-available, slightly-less-strong IGD. You follow? Alright, good, here we go.

2020 Boris pours a very deep brown with some ruby edges when held up to light. It's not a totally black, intense pour, though. Just like with Boris in the past, this is "close-to-black" without becoming scary looking. I recall mentioning that the original recipe's lacing was poor, but this one's is utterly fantastic, so I guess I will go ahead and grade this higher on such a merit alone.

The nose is the first element that differs heavily from previous batches. Have you ever had Skrewball whiskey? It's a peanut butter flavored whiskey that has a certain, er, diacetyl-esque note to it... almost like an odd caramel corn? But it's actually really goddamn good if you like peanut butter flavored stuff. Anyway, this reminds me a lot of that but with a touch of milk chocolate and chocolate malt for good measure. It's not going to be for everyone, and it's certainly very different than the roasty nuttiness of the old Boris, but if you're like me, this will still feel satisfying (and pretty different from other stuff like it on the market!).

Smooth cocoa and roasty malts on the palate with a hint of acrid smoke and, of course, intense peanut butter. I assume they used a very different PB flavoring for this one, or maybe the recipe is just so different that it brings that adjunct into a different direction, but... wow, this is flavorful and intense. Once again, I guarantee many people are not going to like it, as it almost has an "artificial" note to it, but I highly doubt they actually did anything unnatural to affect the flavor. The lactose really changes this one, too, bringing it into a smooth and fun direction. Where I recall noting that previous Boris batches felt oily, this one actually seems surprisingly well-attenuated. I am also extremely impressed by how strong this is in comparison to how it tastes and feels... this shit is damn easy to drink for its weight class, and I'm glad I picked up a rather-affordable four pack. I couldn't do more than one in a session like I could with the previous recipe, but I still like it a lot for what it is!