Phantom Punch Winter Stout (Baxter)
Brewery : Baxter Beer : Phantom Punch Winter Stout Style : Foreign Export Stout / Foreign Stout / Export Stout Variance : Brewed with Roasted Cocoa Nibs and Vanilla Beans
8 / 10
Let’s set the stage. The year is 1965 and Muhammad Ali still has all of his marbles and isn’t a shaky fucking mess yet and he is squaring up against Sonny Liston who is the poster boy for reasons why being a boxer is fucking stupid (because you die super early). So in this fight Ali basically hits Liston with a “phantom punch” and wins the fight using his ghostly abilities and becomes the heavy weight champion. Flash forward to modern day and Ali sits at home having a hard time eating cereal and that’s that. This beer is brewed in tribute to that fight and it’s a pretty damn good one. This is my first Baxter beer and it is once heck of an intro into their lineup and I’m glad these guys are regularly being distributed here in NJ now. This starts with a smokey but sweet chocolatey flavor with only a minor hint of that vanilla joining in in the middle with more smoke and some dark chocolate bitterness mixing in to end this one. This is in no way the best stout out there and you can tell why Vermont is more known for their IPAs than their darker beers but this one still is unique enough to make it worth picking up. This is a good brew for those in love with the style and just want to fit as many black things into their mouth as they can and for newbies to the style, I’m torn on this but I can see the unique flavors being a good intro to the style but the smoke might put some off. Now go and get your face punched in and make millions!
Written by: Steve B.