Empyrean Dark Side Vanilla Porter

Brewed by Empyrean Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Lincoln, Nebraska USA

pours dark brown (almost purplish when held to light), tan quickly dissappating head. sweet aroma with a touch of alcohol. flavor is mostly chocolate, with very little vanilla and a chocolaty finish. medium-bodied. my last comment in my notes seems to be ’doesn’t taste like beer, more like a layer cake’. if that was what the brewer was going for then he hit the bullseye.

Bottle from Valpoaj. Dark brown with no head and minimal carbonation. Aroma was nice with vanilla and lighty roasted coffee. The flavor was light coffee and artifical vanilla, which was no too bad. Light to medium body. Pretty good.

Mar. 2007 - Pours deep dark brown color, nice fluffy head and decent lacing. Strong coffee aroma. Deep coffee flavor with chocolate undertones and prominent vanilla presence. Good beer.

12oz Bottle. Southwestern grill twang leaps off the glass, followed by a strong waft of my grandfather’s leather recliner and a billow of his pipe tobacco, era 1970. That vanilla works in a real musky, earthen tobacco manner. Tar and cloth. Wow, now that I’ve zeroed in on vanilla pipe tobacco I can’t escape it. Enjoyable if unique. Pours the color of a burnt tobacco bowl, with a seltzer-like rim of tinted tan. Flavor tastes very much like the aroma. Tobacco juice lingers and it’s seems as if I’ve just taken a long, solemn draw from my fishing pipe. Chase that with a standard brown porter in B and we’re good to go. Stay away Mosquitos, goddamit! My grandfather yells out, "Marty, get me my paper!" This is no prissy scented candle, latte, spa session ice cream vanilla. Hell no. This is a toasted, charred, aged, tobacco store, leather-faced, yellow-tinted mustache vanilla. Aged, boxed and ready to give out some punches. This is vanilla in a beer I can dig. Man, this would be killer with a pipe and a Canadian club. Nice, full rich body, carrying light sweetness, dryly balanced by the tannic qualities of the bean skin and the roasted edge to the malt. A green leaf dapples the back end. Something special must have been done to the vanilla to get this particular, heavily pipe tobacco tone to the bean. They are either Madagascar or Mexico, and I’m leaning Mexico, but none of that fruity Tahitan sneaks in. Minerals and yeast edge catch the aerosols in the rising alcohol fumes to give it a fresh sense. Way out on the back draw, hops perk up a little bit for a fresh flower gumminess to give rest to the broad, swaying rustic old barn that this beer so embodies. Filtration might actually work here, giving a clean follow through. Could excell with some more fruity nuance, higher alcohol, and time. A beer even my curmudgeonly, dead grandfather could love. Thanks again Sean!

12oz bottle acquired in trade with valpoaj (thanks!). Poured a dark brown color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of roast, lighter vanilla, coffee, and light chocolate. Tastes of vanilla (stronger than aromas), chocolate, lighter roast, and light coffee.

From bottle, courtesy valpoaj, Thanks Adam! : Pours a very dark, near black color with a small very light brown head that dies quickly. Nose of roasted coffee with hints of vanilla and some chocolate finding its way out. Flavor is pretty nice, roasted chocolate and coffee with some vanilla peaking in and out. A medium body, Very smooth and enjoyable.

Poured a very dark mahogany, almost like a stout, with a quickly dissipating tan head. Aroma of Malt, Chocolate, Coffee, and vanilla, in that order. Tasted of semi-sweet chocolate, coffee, with a hint of vanilla, and finished very smooth sweet, and then just that bitter chocolate to finish off, i quite enjoyed it. My first empyrean beer, it will get me to try others, but wont have my expectations incredibly high.

This pours a dark mahogany body with little of any carbonation and a thin tan film in lieu of a head. The aroma is chocolatey with a splash of vailla and some lightly roasted malt. The flavor is dominated by tastes of milk chocolate followed by vanilla and Tootsie Rolls and just enough roasted malt to remind one that this is a beer. Not bad.

<font size=-4>Thanks to Mug Clubber Matt at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Station, Flossmoor, IL for giving me a new state!<font size=-1>