Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

Brewed by Breckenridge Brewery
Style: Porter
Denver, Colorado USA

Bottle. A dark brown color with a laced light brown head. A strong vanilla aroma with chocolate and toffee malts. Vanilla bean flavors with a mild toasted tofee malt flavor. I think this may have too much vanilla and not enough malty and chocolate balance, as if it was added on top of a rather simple porter.

Lakewood, Oh. - Rozi’s Fine Wines - 12 oz bottle. Dark cola pour, slightly funky aroma which settles down after a while - slightly phenolic at first. Flavor has some nice vanilla notes, a hint of root beer and cola, some marshmallows. Mouthfeel is a bit acidy. Decent novelty.

Draft... GABF ’06... Clear copper ale with a small, fizzy, off-white head. The nose is a medley of chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon. Well-balanced flavor with chocolate, vanilla and mellow bitterness. Light-bodied and thin with easygoing carbonation. Lots of sweet vanilla in the finish.

Tap at a local restaurant - you pretty much need to love vanilla to like this beer, as it is almost all that I really taste - don’t get me wrong, it compliments the beer’s creamy body, and light hints of roasted malt, but that vanilla is sure potent - some notes of black malt and a hint of maple way in the back - rather full-flavored for a low ABV brew - just soooo much vanilla.

It is what they say it is. I don’t have to search for the vanilla and it is easily recognizable as a porter. The vanilla is in the aroma as well as the flavor, but there is light coffee and some bitter chocolate in there as well. Rather sweet for a porter, and more so with the vanilla. They are not subtle at Breckenridge; they say vanilla porter and that is exactly what this is.

Bottle from Degarth, thank you. Poured black with no head. Aroma is present - vanilla, a kind of perfumy vanilla with a roasty background. Taste is like a hoppy-perfumy vanilla flavor. A bit thin for me, too watery of a feel. No substance to it.

Bottle. Dark brown; no more than a halo of foam despite aggressive pour. Interesting aroma of smoked almonds. Shockingly non-roasty/porterlike flavor… toasted pecans, hickory smoke, sweet cherry… vanilla character emerges at the end, like freshly sawn green oak. Coppery finish with restrained bitterness. Chewy, buttery texture…”fatty” describes it best. Hazelnut/coffeeish aftertaste and an unusual, back-of-throat wasabi burn. Pretty lame as a porter, but fascinating as an uncategorized specialty beer. Total score would have been at least a full point higher had this been classified as a Scottish ale.

dark as night, little to no brown head. nose of mostly sweet vanilla. mouth feel is slick and uneasily bodied for your palate. more of sweet vanilla extract flavor with a flushed backing of roasted malt. not horrible but not great either. lacking.