Matchless Bar 2025 - Peanut Butter
Matchless Brewing

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque in the glass with a fine, half finger khaki head with great retention and solid lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, chocolate, vanilla and peanut butter. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light char, dark chocolate, whiskey, vanilla and light peanut butter and a touch of woody oak; light bitterness in finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. Another well barreled stout from Matchless. I thought the flavor was a bit thin at first, but it grew on me as I drank the glass; the balance is excellent with harmony between the dark malt, chocolate, vanilla and whiskey. The peanut butter was a bit subdued, but added some welcome character. I'm a peanut butter stout fan and could have had one more assertive, but it's so pleasant that I enjoyed it as is. The whiskey barrel effect is fine, with light, but recognizable barrel woodiness. Enjoyable as always. I wasn't able to find a can of the base one this year, but glad I found this variant, which is just what I wanted.

16oz can, pours black, brown head, plenty of aromas and flavors of chocolate and peanut butter, black coffee, toffee, sweet, earthy, boozy whisky, barrel char.

a neat variant of their annual cocoa nib and vanilla bean stout in whiskey barrels, this time done with peanut butter, although quite subtly and indeed tastefully, not too much here, which i appreciate, i hate the powdered peanut butter beers, and this definitely doesnt present like that. its also rich without being over the top sweet, dont get me wrong, plenty of residual sugar in this, but its not out to kill me, which is a nice feature of a desserty stout. this is dark brown but not black, actually has some head, tan colored from the pint can (a huge dose of this, definitely one to share), and a nice shine and slickness to it. the aroma is brown sugar, good whiskey and barrel char, lots of vanilla, milk and dark chocolate, espresso, and sweet subtle peanut character, roasted but not fatty to me, caramel decadence, maybe trace yeast character which is not out of place. the flavor comes in waves, up front vanilla and toffee, sweet early, then more roast, the barrel and wood aspects before the whiskey, and really light on the peanut butter, which comes really late. very chocolate forward both from the nibs and the malt, not overdone on the vanilla but obvious there, nuances of dark leather like a beat up old couch that used to be nice, cigar wrapper, and raisin. not real boozy, long on the palate, molasses, and mellow but honest to me on the peanut part, which i like. cool whiskey profile, fuller feeling but not too much, pleasant vanilla linger. nice beer, would love to try the original version as well...