Trail Buddies
Old Irving Brewing Co.

Thick, black oily looking pour, small brown head leaves a bit of lacing. Nose reminds me of artificial peanut flavored candy I hated as a kid, some chocolate and nuts. Taste buds agree. Thick'n chewy, smooth, creamy, easy drinking at @12.5%. This is a sickly sweet disaster. Label should read "Imperial Pastry Stout".

It's very tasty and I'm glad it's readily available in the Chicago area.

 

 

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very, very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass with a one finger dark khaki head that dissipated slowly leaving a thin cap and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, almonds, fudge and vanilla. Flavor is dark toasted malt, toasted almonds, bakers chocolate and vanilla, a little aspirin astringency in the finish. Medium bodied with moderate creaminess, nice mouth feel. An interesting rich stout that is similar to pastry stout, but fortunately not all that sweet. The almond flavor is quite authentic in the aroma and flavor, perhaps a bit too much in the flavor as there is a light non-hop bitterness in the finish like the outer skin of an almond that unbalanced the finish. Decent chocolate, not much vanilla. Although the description here lists peanut butter, it is not mentioned on the label and I'm getting almost all almond in the nut flavors. Overall enjoyable nut stout that need the finish slightly dialed in to be stellar. My only real problem with this is: how can it be trail mix without raisins? That would be perfect flavor to blend with this nutty stout.