Atwater Vanilla Java Porter

Brewed by Atwater Block Brewery
Style: Porter
Detroit, Michigan USA

~ Purchased this 12 oz bottle from New Beer Distributors in Manhattan, NY. Pours dark brown with a small head that dissipates quickly. Aromas are light and I can make out hints of coffee and vanilla. Taste is sourish. Mouthfeel is watery. I had high hopes for this beer in the beginning, but it turned out to be a disaster in the end. Drink at your own risk! ~

Pours a deep brown almost black with a smaller creamy/bubbly tan head. Aroma of tart cherries, light hints of roast and chocolate and barely noticeable coffee...no vanilla. Either this bottle is really really old (I just bought it at Blue Dog Pub and brewery prints no freshness dates on it’s bottles) or some wild yeast got ahold of this one. Flavor of this off tart sourness, cherry, light roasted malt some chocolate and maybe a touch of the coffee. What the heck! Totally watery and thin. DRAIN POUR

Black pour with some ruby highlights and a short-lived, 1-finger, tan head. The aroma is subtle roast and cocoa with faintly detectable vanilla and a fair dose of spicy hops. The flavor is pretty much the same as the aroma but with just a bit more vanilla. It’s really all a bit artificial tasting though. Finishes a little aqueous too. The body is a bit on the thin side and a touch over carbonated.

Dark mahogany with fair, creamy tan head / Weak roast barley nose / Light body, very watery with faint finish / Very weak flavors of vanilla extract and dormitory vending machine coffee / One of the worst beers I’ve ever had. Pathetic.

Pours black with tiny tan head. Smell of vanilla rours through over everything else. Did not expect much so I was surprised at how tasty this beer is....I think we have it a tad underated.

Atwater’s is a perfect company to brew this beer, because well, its full of water. A beer that carries a lengthy name ingredient deck brings little flavor to the table. This beer should be so much more, but falls flat, like its taste.

Pours brown with a surprisingly fizzy, very active off-white head. The constant bubbling of the head was a bit weird. Aroma is surprisingly lager-esque of grains, rice wine vinegar, and malt with a hint of coffee in the background. The flavor has more coffee with notes of caramel syrup, wheat grains, and rice. Slight bitter chocolate finish. A bit watery and weak. Tastes like someone spilled a bit of coffee porter into a full glass of lager. This is weird.

I sampled this beer on draft at Max’s Taphouse in Baltimore. It had a dark black color with a small, dark tan head with good cling and little retention. The aroma was a nice coffee scent with a touch of vanilla, some caramel malt and a bit of grain. It had a good coffee taste with a sweet vanilla flavor and some bitterness. The beer was quite wet and watery with low carbonation and a thinner, less full feel.