Boo!

I will not be attending tonight's grand tour of 28th Ave (aka "Night of the Living Ales"), despite the fact (or because of?) that it's four blocks away. However, because I have been keenly interested in Ezra's peanut butter stout, brewed up special through the Coalator program at Coalition, I managed to score an early preview.

I first heard about this stout weeks ago, with Ezra cavalierly dismissing concerns about what the peanut oil would do to the yeast. I was impressed enough by his moxie to note it, but didn't think I'd get a chance to try it this quickly. If you are on the fence, definitely join the fun tonight and try it; you won't soon have the chance to try a similar experiment. (His full description of the process is here.) The beer is distinctly peanut-buttery, both in the flavor and thick body. You can even see, holding the beer up to light, its murky, river-water appearance (largely obscured by the dark malts, of course). It also affects the viscosity somehow. I'd like to sip a couple beers over the course of an hour to see how it affects the tongue; I couldn't tell if it was stickier or slicker, but it was somehow different. The nut flavor is more a minor note, and complements the stout's roastiness nicely. All in all, a strange and fascinating experiment.

Happy halloween--