Humble Forager Voyager's Getaway Imperial Pastry Porter

Humble Forager Voyager's Getaway Imperial Pastry Porter. Marshmallow, vanilla beans, cacao nibs, coconut. 

12 % ABV. Humble Forager Brewing Company, Waunakee, WI. 

This beer has several strikes against from the start. First, it is called a "pastry porter", and second, it contains marshmallows. But, it's from Forager, or, more precisely, Humble Forager, and I decided to forgive it and give it a go. Here we go. 

Splendidly dark, fully opaque, slim to no head at all. 

In the nose: Sweetness in abundance. Nibs are in play, coconut is coming loose, there's a stroke of vanilla, and is that sweet, sticky marshmallow up in there? By golly, it is. 

In the malt: Gooey sweets start it off, richness in extremus. No hops to speak of, and the adjuncts have overcome any of the malt flavors that you should normally pick up in a porter, imperial or otherwise. But, pastry, however, that's another thing. The book's thrown out. Cocoa and coconut are king here, and balance is long gone and deserted. Then marshmallow mucks it all up. If you're looking for indulgence without purpose, here it is. 

And the alcohol starts it's assault. Body feels full at first, but is not hefty enough to support the indulgent flavorings and the huge alcohol. 

If you can read between the lines, you might find the attributes of an extreme beer that you're looking for. I'm certainly not telling one and all to stray far from this creation, but the word is out that it is certainly not for me. 

A well-built structure of specialty malts floats atop a bed of flavors reminiscent of vanilla cream-filled chocolate cake, covered with marshmallows and coconut. Coconut from Indonesia, vanilla from Papua New Guinea, and cocoa nibs from Uganda will ripple across your palate from this imperial pastry porter.

Well, here's the problem with this. The "well-built structure of specialty malts" does not float atop the bed of flavors, it is swallowed up by them. The malts should be the "bed", the flavors should float atop of them. Everyone should know this.