HopTown Vanilla Cream Porter

Formerly brewed at HopTown Brewing Company
Style: Porter
Pleasanton, California USA

(Nitro Draft: O’Brien’s in San Diego, CA) Right off the bat, the nose is blasted with a vanilla and strong chocolate aroma. Very chocolaty and dark roasted maltiness dominates this brew, sweet, but not sugary, moderately bitter but not hoppy. It tastes so chocolaty, and the palate is so smooth and milky, it’s like drinking chocolate milk. Fairly consitent flavor from start to finish, so no complex transformations here. Body is medium-to-full, but I really can’t get over how silky and creamy the palate is, this is like sex for the tongue. Very dark brown, almost black and nearly opaque. The very creamy tan head is fairly small on the pour, gradually fading to a circle around the glass interior without leaving even a trace of lacing, and that’s disappointing for a beer on nitro. And actually, the heading has always been poor, every time I’ve had it. So except for the poor heading, this is a wonderful beer, one that I order whenever I see it on tap.

Aroma: strong vanilla scent with a tobacco/cigar scent. Slightly earthy/smokey/spicy.
Appearance: dark, deep brown with deep tan head.
Flavor: true vanilla flavoring. Also chocolate, coffee, coco, bittersweet chocolate chips, and cream flavors.
Palate: Very smooth with sharp vanilla bite. Vanilla bean/chocolate aftertaste.
Overall: More of a sweet stout than a porter.

Aroma is very vanillaly, and a little smoky. Flavour is slightly vanillaly, very burnt, and coffeeish. I like what they did with it - I think that if you're going to put a label on something like "kriek" "vanilla" etc., the beer should destroy the boundaries of your tastebuds. This one is very vanilla. I like vanilla.

on tap @ hopyard in Ptown. Chocolate, vanilla aroma which seemed very deep and thick. Vanilla flavor with bitter aftertaste. Nice thick lasting head with dark black brown color.

Bomber poured a nearly opaque black with a small lasting brown head. Aromas of vanilla, milk chocolate and a hint of mocha. Palate was medium bodied smooth and creamy. Flavors of milk chocolate, vanilla, some roastiness and a hint of coffee with a smooth lingering bittersweet finish. A very tasty vanilla porter!

Draft at O/Brien’s. Served on Nitro. Darkest color with a tan head that held forever thanks to the nitro. I knew it was VANILLA so I could smell the vanilla on the aroma. I wonder if I hadn’t known I would have detected chocolate. Chocolate was definitley on the flavor. Overall, it was very sweet with that classic dusty porter twang on the finish. I really like this one.

medium thickness, coffee and chocolate flavour, more coffe than chocolate. i didnt really notice vanilla for some reason. thick head and strong coffee smell.

an aggressive explosion of vanilla and roasted coffee fumes flows from this pitch black beauty covered in a thin swirl of tan bubbles...A colossal bite of vanilla floating in a sea of roasted & flavorful coffee...chunks of bitter chocolate rained upon by vanilla beans...succulent coffee cake and a deep roasty aftertaste..the mouthfeel pleasantly oily..very impressive, but wouldn't want to drink more than 1 in a siting.