Warship: Chocolate + Peanut Butter
Arvon Brewing Co.

Pours oily black with a finger of mocha head reducing to a decent ring with an island of foam persisting. Nose is bitter coffee, cacao, and peanut butter. Taste follows, finishing bitter. Plenty of body here. Almost chewy. Well above average.

No canning date (released on 12/17/21, so presumably canned within a few days of that date); consumed on 2/7/22

Pours a dense, glossy, oil-black body topped with a finger and a half of fluffy, khaki foam; solid head retention yields a half-finger of cap, larger, creamy collar, and sizeable splotches of webby lacing pasted across the walls of the glass.

Aromas of dark chocolate open to caramel nuances with smoky malt accents and dark fruit medley thoroughly interwoven; peanut shells soon build to hints of chunky peanut butter and peaking with a nougat overtone into roasty char on the back end.

Taste brings raw cacao and roasted peanuts upfront, with hints of dark fruit esters lingering in the backdrop and a tinge of smoky malts softened with more malted chocolate accents through the mid-palate; level, bittersweet roast amplifies over the back end, leaving burnt vanilla contending with waves of charry coffee grounds on the finish.

Mouthfeel offer a medium-full body with moderate carbonation building from a fluffy char, dispersing a creamy, calm richness underscored by a subtle grit over the mid-palate as a moderate, roasty bitterness forms a dry finish.

An established, roasty base takes on a more chocolate-forward profile as it melds with predominant dark fruits and roast, while sensations of richer peanut butter flow in the backdrop, a more tentative interlude in a stout more naturally inclined toward bittersweet tendencies.

 

 

Received a 16 oz can in Mansfield, OH on 12/26/2021 as a Christmas present from my sister-in-law and her husband from Arvon Brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Transported via a cooler to Frisco, TX via Greenwood, IN (a well-traveled beer). Consumed on 1/2/2022 in an Arvon-themed tulip glass.

Look: Pours a deep black liquid with minimal carbonation and a thin brown head that quickly dissipates. Noticeable legs and slight mocha-colored lacing any time the beer is moved around in the glass. Noticeably thicker in viscosity than the average stout.

Smell: Peanut butter on the nose, similar to a peanut butter wafer. Enjoyable to inhale.

Taste: Malty, peanut butter and baker’s chocolate goodness. Pretty tasty, and went well with the crappy Kroger brand break and bake chocolate chip cookies my wife was baking simultaneously to the consumption of this beer.

Feel: a somewhat medium to full bodied mouthfeel from the thicker than average viscosity of this beer. Very smooth for 11.0% ABV. Went down with no problem.

Overall: A tasty, if somewhat safe chocolate and peanut butter stout. I never had the regular Warship stout by Arvon, at least as of the moment of writing this review; but nonetheless I’m eager to have more of Arvon’s stout offerings in the future if fortunate should afford me the opportunity.