Beer of the Week: Fluff’n Perfect

Last week, I wrote about collaborating with Duck Foot Brewing Head Brewer Matt Akin to create a beer celebrating San Diego Beer News‘ six-year anniversary. In doing so, I shared how big events like that typically lead to the crafting of equally big beers in terms of alcohol content. For our beer, we decided to go really big with a Belgian-style strong ale coming in at 15% alcohol-by-volume. I thought it would be a while before I saw another locally produced beer registering that high on the ABV scale, but lo and behold, it took all of one week. In celebration of his brewery’s anniversary, The Roadies Brewing Head Brewer Peter Perrecone challenged himself to cook up an industrial-strength stout that would help make the occasion extra memorable. I say extra because the musical-themed business already has an annually released birthday beer, an IPA cleverly dubbed NOW! That’s What I Call an Anniversary, so there was no need to go a step further. But I’m glad they did, because Perrecone’s bruisingly boozy stout is not just massive, it’s also delicious, and in a manner that will be fun and familiar to a great many. Enter this week’s featured beer, Fluff’n Perfect. The name alludes to the fact this imperial stout was designed to mimic the flavors of a fluffernutter, or a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich for those who’ve never had the pleasure of indulging in one. For the beer, Perrecone incorporated the sandwich’s main ingredients along with vanilla and…bourbon. The latter was brought on by 18-and-a-half months of barrel-aging. That’s a lot of time to wait to see if an idea is going to come together, and thankfully it does, making for the second jab in an enjoyable one-two anniversary beer punch, which can be experienced during The Roadies’ official festivities taking place at their Vista tasting room all this weekend.

I tried to make the biggest stout I could, loading it with tons of chocolate malts and some roasted barley for a big chocolate flavor. After fermentation, I aged it in Heaven Hill Bourbon barrels for 18 months, then flavored it with marshmallows and my favorite flavor for a barrel-aged stout: peanut butter. The goal was to make it taste like an old East Coast fluffernutter sandwich. After all was said and done, it came out to a whopping 15.5%. Happy anniversary to us!”

Peter Perrecone, Head Brewer, The Roadies Brewing

The Roadies Brewing is located at 1495 Poinsettia Avenue, #148 in Vista