Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

Brewed by Breckenridge Brewery
Style: Porter
Denver, Colorado USA

Artificial vanilla extract tastes fake because of the chemically taste of ethyl vanillin, compared to the smoother taste from vanillin. Vanillin is present in vanilla beans, ethyl vanillin is not. Ethyl vanillin is added to the artificial vanilla extract along with vanillin because it is >3X stronger and more stable. That concludes our lesson for today LOL. I don’t get any fake vanilla character from this beer. In fact, I think the character is nicely integrated although a bit more obvious in the taste than I would probably brew myself. The roast character is also too restrained for my taste, so all in all a good attempt here but not a home run.

Bottle. Creamed amaretto, vanilla, almonds and chocolate in the nose, perfume-like at times but overall enjoyable. Smooth and resinous texture is welcomed. Vanilla is heavy but fresh, vibrant and delicious. Roast is minimal, little to no bitterness, little to no astringency. Could benefit from some more roast malt character, but overall it is a decent desert beer when consumed fresh.

Bottle. Pours dark brown, with red when held up to the light. Medium light brown head. Mild aroma of vanilla and some toasted malts and chocolate. Upfront taste is vanilla and then the chocolate and slight bitterness follow. Smooth, sticky, astringent.

Bottle. Pours dark brown with a small mostly dissipating tan foamy head. Aroma is dark roasted chocolate and caramel malt (toast) and leathery yeast with a vanilla nose. Vanilla and dark malt medium sweet flavor that transcends into a medium bitter and acidic drying spicy toasted caramel malt finish. Dark bodied and fizzy-spicy palate.

Tall off white head over a clear, dark brown body. Roast malt with a hint of vanilla. Lightly sweet with no hop bitterness. Vanilla is weak. A bit thin. Not bad, but it could have been much more.

Pours a very dark amber brown, almost cola like with a medium creamy white beige head. Aroma of vanilla Coke and malts. Taste is like drinking a vanilla cola with roasted faint malts. Nothing special here.

I’m kind of not sure what to say about this. Typical dark colour with a thin but tenacious head. Typical roasty aroma with maybe a tiny hint of vanilla in there. The flavour is again a typical roasted chocolate/coffee porter with some smooth and semi sweet vanilla to round it out.

Draft. Dark body with porter red edges. Very white thin ring of bubbles and a thin film of bubbles. Looks weak and thin. Nose-“brewery” smelling-malt extract, sanitizer, husky. Taste-big tome tootsie roll especially in the after taste, very candy like, good medium bitter, low alcohol, clean crisp finish, a slight hint of vanilla on the finish, leans slightly to the sweet side, medium lactic like malt powder, just a hint of very sweet coffee, overall clean and sweet. I like the overall flavor profile but it is a bit too sweet. Wouldn’t be my everyday drinker, but I wouldn’t turn it down.