After our homebrew club meeting this evening, I headed over to Flingers Pizza and Pub in downtown Bloomington, IL for one last drink. They have craft beers on tap there for half price on Mondays, and I was fortunate they had one I haven’t had yet. I’ve seen beers from Big Muddy on the shelf at the local liquor store, but haven’t tried any of their beers yet.

Location: On tap and served in a regular pint glass at Flingers Pizza and Pub

Numbers: 6% ABV, ~ 200 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: The beer was dark brown, almost black in color, and some brownish-red highlights could be seen through it when held up to the light. It had a thin, creamy tan-colored head, which fell after a couple minutes and didn’t leave much lacing on the glass. Light vanilla aromas and hints of roasty malt were detectable.

Taste & Feel: The body was fairly light and the mouthfeel was smooth. The flavors up front were lightly sweet, with a good dose of vanilla extract like flavor. In the middle, some lightly roasty and dark chocolate flavors entered the background, but the vanilla flavors dominated through the finish. The flavors faded fairly quickly in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer brings plenty of vanilla flavor, so I’d pair it with a dessert plate. It hink it would go nicely with something chocolatey, like a cake or brownie. However, it would also go nicely with something like a bread pudding or creme brulee.

Overall Impression: This is a milk or sweet stout with vanilla… and plenty of it. In my opinion, the vanilla flavors were a bit too much. It’s not that they were overwhelming, but it was almost impossible to detect flavors from the grains or hops. Overall, it was a smooth, very drinkable beer, but I’d prefer for it to have a bit more complex taste instead of it being just all vanilla.

My Rating:

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