Day 688: Rogue Voodoo Doughnut

Several weeks ago I found out that my local Whole Foods got in a shipment of the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Chocolate Banana  Peanut Butter stout. I like Rogue's beer. I really like Voodoo Doughnuts. And despite having heard from many people that the first iteration of the Rogue/Voodoo beer was a terrible, smoky mess, I could not resist the siren song of a stout with flavors of chocolate and peanut butter. (See evidence here, here and here.)

Can someone come over and rake all those leaves?
Mr. Blog and I are too busy drinking beer.

It poured an almost black brown color with a deep tan, full head. It smelled strongly of bananas that faded nicely into strong dark chocolate aromas. As it sat on the table next to me, I could easily smell the chocolate scent wafting over to me. I took a sip and my first thought is that it is kind of watery. Another sip. Yup, watery. There's some chocolate in the flavor but it's light compared to the smell. There is a lot of coffee, which I wasn't expecting. There was also something perfumey in there and I can't describe it any better than that. Sadly I'm not getting any peanut butter and I had to work hard to get any banana. I wavered between rating this one average, but the more I tried to drink it and then sleeping on it overnight, I decided that it was getting a poor rating. 

Beer stats

Style: Stout

ABV: 5.3%

IBUs: Unknown

Rating: Poor

Previously reviewed from Rogue

Beard beer, more Beard Beer, Eugene City Brewery Honey Orange Wheat Ale, Juniper ale, the sampler 

Day 651: Spring House Big Gruesome

Despite my general thinking that I don't like big stouts and porters during the warm summer months, that didn't stop me from trying a few of the new ones I found this summer (Tired Hands 5 out of 5, DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus). This one goes in the peanut butter beer category, which surprisingly is actually a category of beer for me now.

This is the Spring House Big Gruesome--a chocolate peanut butter stout. It poured nearly black as night with a chocolate milk color head.  It smells of fresh peanut butter and cocoa. The flavor is predominantly coffee, bitter chocolate with undertones of peanuts. It's creamy of full of dark roasted malt flavor and finishes with a nice bite.

Beer stats
Style: Stout
ABV: 8%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from Spring House
After visiting their tap room this spring, here are reviews of Goofy Foot (summer wheat), Cliff (saison), Little Gruesome (PB&J stout)
I've also had Cosmic Monster (quad)

More Goofy Foot,  more Cliff, Robot Surf Factory (IPA), Seven Gates (pale ale)

Day 645: DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus

After doing a little blog housekeeping this weekend, I found a bunch of reviews from this summer that went unused thanks to the gazillion reviews that resulted from my trip to Belgium. So today's post is a trip down memory lane to TJ's Independence Party where I had a chance to try DuClaw Brewing Company's Sweet Baby Jesus.

Sweet Baby Jesus is a peanut butter chocolate porter. It poured deep brown, almost black in the glass with a think off-white head. It smelled deeply of peanut butter. The flavor is full of chocolate and peanut butter with some roasted, smoky coffee notes. I also noted a little more hop flavor in this one compared to other chocolate peanut butter beers that I've had recently (Tired Hand's Five out of Five or Spring House's Big Gruesome, for example).

Beer stats
Style: Stout
ABV: 6.5%
IBUs: 53
Rating: Good

Previously reviewed from DuClaw
Venom (American pale ale), more Venom

Day 571: 5 Out of 5 from Tired Hands

I haven't taken an extraordinarily crappy photo like this one in quite awhile. It's almost like my camera knew this beer was going to knock me for a loop and gave me a drunken photo without actually being drunk yet. Hey, camera...thanks. Thanks a lot.

What is pictured in this terribly blurry photograph is the 5 Out of 5--a weird imperial stout from Tired Hands Brewing. Tired Hands is my happy place. Evidence is found in the "Previously Reviewed from" list below. We drink a lot of Tired Hands beer in our house.

5 Out of 5 is brewed with lots of malts, peanut butter, cacao, maple syrup, marshmallow, vanilla bean and One Village espresso. What, what?? 5 Out of 5 is brewed with malts, peanut butter, cacao, maple syrup, marshmallow, vanilla bean and One Village espresso.  What's more amazing is that almost each of these flavors presents itself in the best way possible.

First off, let's talk about the color. It pours nearly black as night in my glass. It had an amazingly thick deep tan head. It's smells rich, sweet and a bit chocolatey. The first sip stopped all four of us who ordered on dead in our tracks. Awkward glances were exchanged as we each tried to figure out what we were tasting. Is it chocolate? Maple syrup? Is that marshmallow? There's the vanilla. Ooh and the nutty flavor from the peanut butter.

Reviews were mixed but overall positive. 5 Out of 5 is a strong beer (10% ABV) with a lot of flavor. It's sweet but not syrupy. If you don't like a sweet beer, this is definitely not for you. But if you're up for a flavor adventure, this is one weird imperial stout that I highly recommend.

Beer stats
Style: Imperial stout
ABV: 10%
IBUs: Unknown
Rating: Excellent

Previously reviewed from Tired Hands

I'm dropping Vonnegut knowledge and a review of Bokonon

My review of Eye 4A Face, Tabel Printemps, Good, Good Things, Trois Enfants, Lil Lady
Gary's review of CuzCuz, Good, Good Things, Fripp, Pacific Jade, Fauna