Twice The Mud
Third Moon Brewing

Very good head production; decent retention.

Even from a distance, the aroma is rich. Up close, the nuttiness is most prominent. It's not just like peanut butter added to a beer; it's like a bowl full of peanuts, right in your face, right down to the slightly metallic edge. Chocolate and vanilla are nearly lost beneath the force of peanut butter, along with additional notes of molasses, cherry, and caramel. There's an undeniably doughy aspect to the aroma as well, perhaps due to the added vanilla wafers.

Less thick on the palate than expected. The initial flavor profile is somehow thinner, as well, with an almost undefined "stoutiness" at first. The peanuts come strong before mid sip, and the vanilla and vanilla wafers are prominent on the back third, with the peanut butter receding just a tad to be complementary. The chocolate exists throughout, but a much stronger chocolate presence would boost the overall profile significantly; it's too restrained.

It all works well together; I was just expecting a bigger face full of flavor, especially for a pastry stout, and doubly especially for a pastry stout called Twice the Mud. For all of the extra ingredients they threw in, I don't feel they really got a full return on investment. On the pastry stout spectrum, if Angry Chair sets the high bar, and DuClaw sets the low bar, this beer sits comfortably in between. There's no shame there.

Full tasting notes, in no particular order: peanut butter, vanilla, toffee, coffee, red grape, cream, chocolate (bitter and semi-sweet), caramel, leather.