Branded & Barreled Banana, Chocolate, Peanut Butter

Branded & Barreled Banana, Chocolate, Peanut Butter by Belching Beaver Brewery was judged as Mixed-Style Beer (34B BJCP 2021) with a base styles of Specialty Wood-aged Beer (33B), Imperial Stout (20C) and Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (30A). You could probably throw Fruit Beer in there too for completeness. Suffice it to say, there is a lot going on here. Where to start? Banana, peanut butter and chocolate all come through strongly in the nose. This really rings the bell on a number of my childhood quality memories. I mean, who doesn’t like all of those things? (Well, probably those with peanut allergies …) That said, it is a bit peculiar to have all of this in a beer. The beer is black, has no head, and has an oily and particle-laced film on the surface. The flavor is rich with a strong flavor like eating a banana split, or at least chocolate covered bananas. The peanut butter flavor is there as well, but it plays more of a supporting role. A cherry-fruit flavor is also notable, perhaps from the imperial stout base beer style. All of this gives it a very dessert-like quality. The mouthfeel is very full and a bit warm from the alcohol. There is an almost viscous mouthfeel either from residual sugars or intense body. Overall, I find this to be too much at once for a beer. If this were served to me as a dessert, I would be impressed, though. In fact, it might serve as an excellent topper for a variety of desserts like ice cream, cake, treacle tart, etc.