Ballast Point Victory at Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter

Brewed by Ballast Point Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
San Diego, California USA

Another huge thanks to Smokepot23. Crushed with Jakebra. One delicious beer. Nose of coffee, vanilla, chocolate. Flavor has the same but chocolate is more extreme. Thick, roasty, complex, and awesome.

Bottle from the Scripps Ranch location. Nose is more subdued than the tap version, but still smacks of coffee and the addition of light vanilla is nice. Flavor is much the same, but the coffee shows through even more - kept light on the palate by the vanilla. Make no mistake, this doesn’t have the distinct vanilla flavor one might expect: instead, the coffee and vanilla are unified exquisitely, eliminating the bitter, semi-sour sensations often imparted by the bean. This is very drinkable.
Earlier Rating: 1/23/2008 Total Score: 4.7
Absolutely! Ab-So-Lutely! I looked for a bottle of this everywhere I went for months, but finally found it on tap at the Stone World Bistro. Dear Lord, yes! It’s like coffee that can get you hammered! This loses minor points on Palette/Flavor because it’s not at all complicated: it’s coffee; and one more overall because it’s brilliantly tasty, but I don’t know if I could drink it every day. An absolute masterwork.

22oz from Carrboro Beverage Company. Having wanted to try this for quite a while, I was expecting to be underwhelmed after the recent arrival of KBS. But I have to say that this brew is nearly on a par. Thick creamy pour, motor oil and coffee head. Sweet vanilla notes are very subtle in the nose, a nice surrogate for the barrel usually favored in this style. Creamy body, almost oatmeal stout-like. Coffee is delicious, seems like it’s cold-filtered. Rich and complex base porter is satisfying in its own right, but the interplay of dessert beer flavors is really scrumptious.

Bottle: pours dark black with a frothy tan head, aroma of coffee, chocolate, vanilla and malt, taste is chocolate, coffee, vanilla, very smooth and rich, a bit of a bite from some hops in the finish. Seems very much like a stout to me but whatever...good stuff.

Bottles in trade from ROBORB and TURDFERGUSON. Thanks!! Pours black with light tan head. Smell is strong coffee, chocolate and a lot of slightly artificial vanilla, but not too overwhelming. Taste is the same but with a hoppy, dry finish. Lots of coffee, chocolate and vanilla, as expected. A touch too much vanilla, but still pretty tasty stuff!

22 oz bomber. Pours a dark cola black with a medium tan head. Aroma of baking chocolate, vanilla, malt and warm alcohol. Taste of baking chocolate, fudge, malt and a distinct vanilla flavor. Nice warming alcohol finish.

22 oz bottle. Strong coffee, chocolate and vanilla flavors. A very thick meaty porter. This has a very good sweet/dry balance going on. Slightly has the flavor of vanilla flavored coffee.

22oz bottle. pours black with tan head. nose of vanilla, lots of vanilla, caramel, baker’s chocolate. flavor of lots of vanilla, roast, chocolate, caramel, a touch sourish. med body. just too much going on and a lot of vanilla, which vanilla notes that arent subtle isn’t my thing.