To be honest, I thought I already had this beer. Looking back in my history on the blog, I have found that I, apparently, did not. I don't know why I was always under the impression that I had. I think I was confusing it with the Scary Jesus Rock Star pale ale I had a good long while ago. Either way, I have a chocolate peanut butter porter in front of me, and that is an excellent combination of words. Let's see if they did it right.
The beer pours out, as is traditional, black. It's a ruby brown around the edges, but anyone who looks at it is gonna say it's black. The off-white head is small bubbles that boil away to just a wisp in the center of the beer and a ring that does not completely circumnavigate the surface. If there are points of nucleation down there at the bottom, I can't see them, but the beer's black. The aroma is more peanut butter than it is chocolate, and it's more peanut butter than it is beer. But the aroma may not tell the whole story. There's a reason we drink.First sip is sweet on the front end and dry and slightly bitter on the backend. Chocolate is sitting there up front, but peanuts await you at the end. Even in the sip, I can sense the carbonation wanting to burn a lot harder than it is. I'm hoping that it doesn't get too bad during the full swig, or the this may go horribly wrong. For a sip, this is pretty flavorful and solid.
Tip-in is gentle carbonation caress with mild chocolate and surprising alcohol with some earth. The middle becomes slightly more caustic as carbonation increases and mixes with the alcohol while chocolate and peanuts mix with the earth below. The finish is much more sedate with bitter chocolate mixing with peanut butter and sending it off into a smoky trail off.
Bottom Line: This is a very enjoyable brew.
4.0/5