Matchless Bar - Peanut Butter (2020)
Matchless Brewing

L: Black as pitch and brown at the fringe. A thin cap settles to an espresso cream ring on the glass and no lacing.

S: Boozy (minty?) upfront but with plenty of vanilla and bourbon, cocoa and no peanut butter to be found.

T: Follows the nose with a little more nuttiness, molasses, quite sweet but not too sweet.

F: Thick and rich. Matchless is playing with the big boys here. Boozy a bit much.

O: This beer is dang near the best of Goose Islands BCBS, surely beating the worst of their releases. Little peanut at all but as a beer - very impressive and unexpected. Maybe they should just stop with the IPA's.

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque black in the glass, pouring with very little sign of carbonation, no head and a thin band of bubbles around the glass. Aroma of dark toasted malt, cocoa, peanut butter, and oddly, a hint of coconut; no bourbon. Flavor is semi-sweet dark toasted malt, milk chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, nuts and bourbon. Lingering peanut butter and bourbon finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess, silky mouth feel. Good carbonation to the taste, despite the near still pour. One fine peanut butter stout. The balance is superb, with the malt, vanilla, peanut and barrel flavors all in harmony and a little chocolate in the background. In this case and mellow amount of barrel bourbon is just right to fit in with everything else. I've become a big fan of peanut butter stouts and this is a fine one. Well done.