Wild Beer Co Yankee Sandwich

Wild Beer Co: Yankee Sandwich (England: Sweet Stout: 4.7% ABV)

Visual: Very dark brown black. Minimal toffee coloured suds around the edge of the glass.

Nose: Roasted – both standard and dry roasted peanuts style. Lactose. treacle.

Body: Nutty. Peanut butter. Milk and lactose. Sugared almonds. Brittle nut toffee. Slight sour dough. Light milky chocolate.

Finish: Peanuts and peanut butter. Lactose. Light bitter cocoa.

Conclusion: There is only so much a beer can live up to hype. Odd words after my last review, but roll with it, ok. Please. This is more a hype of the moment – my local store went batshit for this. Sold out in two days. That creates a certain level of expectations. Cracking open the bottle felt like opening the ark of the covenant. Or so it should be by crowd reaction.

So, how is it?

Well, it is very much a milk stout that taste of peanut butter. That may seem to be stating the obvious, but it is amazing how may beers mess up their raison d’etre. This lives up to its claims at the very minimum.

The main flavour seems to be, ach, I’m struggling for a word here – you know that brittle nut infused toffee. You smack it with a hammer to break it up. then eat it. This taste a lot like that, it has that mix of sweet and nutty, and that hard to place fragile texture. Around that is the milk stout backing, it shows itself more in feel and general impression than many specific flavours – the chocolate bitterness and lactose are there, yes, but it feels like it is more pushing out and making space for the peanut and toffee main character.

The main actual contrast flavour wise is a sour dough touch – huh, sour dough, peanut butter – guess they did make a sandwich, no?

So, yes it is very peanut butter, and it is tasty – but not really up to the fan reaction levels as a beer. It does it’s job well, tastes peanut butter, feels peanut butter, backed by milk stout – but not massively doing much beyond that.

Still, it is a fun wee one, but more that – fun – than anything else. Worse things to be though.

Background: This was a popular one, I barely managed to get a bottle from – Independent Spirit! I do like the Wild Beer co, not everything works, but they are more constantly innovative than any other brewery in England at the moment. This is a comparatively simple twist, a milk stout made with peanuts – but it seems to have caught the public’s imagination. As a thanks to Chris of Independence Spirit, today’s *ahem* oddity of the light in the photo is chosen as I think it is one he will appreciate.

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