First, Tailgate came at me with the Peanut Butter Milk Stout, and it was fine. Then, they came out with the Imperial Peanut Butter Milk Stout, and that was better, but it was still not hitting the mark squarely enough to lift it up above the din. Finally, they present the Imperial Peanut Butter and Jelly Milk Stout. Aside from the actual moonshine jelly, the beer that I anticipate this will be most like is the Catawba Peanut Butter Jelly Time. That was a brown ale, though, and a milk stout seems more appropriate for this kind of wacky beverage.
Well, it's a milk stout, so it's about as black as night, but it does have a bit of brownish red coming through if you really stare at it hard enough. The light tan head doesn't stay very long in really doesn't come out to play that much in the first place. Once it boils down, it's just a ring around the sides of glass of tiny little bubbles. The aroma very much brings to mind a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and it seems heavier on the jelly than I would expect for this kind of mix. Peanuts would usually tend to overwhelm, but there are just backing up the sweet grape jelly.
First sip is not bad. It's sweet, but it's also very tangy. The jelly is bringing a lot of the sweetness and fruitiness that you would expect, and the peanuts are laying the groundwork that would normally be done entirely by malt. This is not to say that there isn't a malt underneath, but it seems overshadowed by these two flavors. The underlying malt is a dark roast that has definitely seen a bit of charring.
Tip-in is mild carbonation tingling with jelly oozing into a bit of honey for added sweetness while the fruits are just a little tart. The middle evens out everything with the adding of the peanut butter and the charred malt underneath while the sweet and tart jelly and honey mix rises above; the charred malt really isn't making much of an impact, but it's there. The finish is a sudden decline into the charred malt before the sweetness of the jelly comes back up for the trail off.
Bottom Line: Is this a novelty beer or a dessert beer? Who cares. I'm going to drink another.
3.5/5
Tailgate Imperial Peanut Butter & Jelly Milk Stout
Saturday, August 15, 2020