Landmark Vanilla Bean Brown Ale

A Sim rate (bottle from Whole Foods Bowery): Smells unpleasantly bland. Maybe it’s that slightly metallic aroma you get from a mass-produced lager. Not really sure. But it’s certainly not vanilla. No sweetness at all. Flavour is a bit better, but not much. It’s bitter toffee, citric acid and a tinge of sweet roast. You really have to work to taste the flavours. Palate is carb and stings a bit. Not sure I like that feeling. Overall, it’s a bit of a letdown... especially for something with "vanilla" in the name. Mediocre at best.

12oz bottle (thanks to my wife for brining this back from Buffalo for me!). She picked this up at the Flying Bision Brewery (maybe they are now contract brewing it vs. Wagner Valley?). Poured a medium reddish / brownish color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of burnt malts, earthy, some caramel, and light vanilla. Tastes of vanilla soda, caramel, and a little nutty.

Tap at Ginger Man. Brown beer with a thin head. Nose is loaded with vanilla and swet caramel. A softly cocoaish aroma along the back. It’s pretty one dimensional and a bit too sweet, but I do like the vanilla quite a bit. Softly malty and sweet but it’s not cloying.

Draft at Capone’s. This one is terribly under-rated. Poursn medium brown with a huge chocolate milkshake looking head. Nose is vanilla bean, chocolate, almond, caramel malt. The palate is medium in heft, perhaps a bit watery. The flavor was very nice, a mix of vanilla bean, caramel malt, chocolate, and brown sugar, all pretty well melded together. I’d drink this again in a heartbeat.

A dark clear brown with a thin light moka head. A pleasant aroma of vanilla and light chocolate. In mouth, a rather light caramel with vanilla beans. Overall, rather thin. Bought at Party Source.

12 ounce bottle from Beers of the World in Rochester, NY (June 2007), served from a Chouffe tulip at cellar temperature. A gigantic smooth tan large-bubbled head spews forth, filling 9/10 of the glass and me with dread (infection?); as it dies the glass is left smooth, and a hazy molasses liquid is revealed.....the aroma isn’t problematic, at least, although it is quite weak: vanilla and nuts, no surprise, but pretty low-dosage; perhaps a bit grapy as it warms up....dull, light, faintly chocolaty, grapy and a touch sour in the body, hints of rather old, not quite rancid nuts, no vanilla really, malts are barely in evidence....fruity, stale finish and milky, undercarbonated mouthfeel. umm, no.

On cask at Clark’s Ale House. Way too sweet, although a touch stouty. A medium mouthfeel brown freshly tapped at Kelly Cole’s Improper, with the Landmark rep. A claim that it’s pure vanilla, it could be. First sample off the tap was sour, so we will ignore that. A bit milky at first and then carmel body and full carbonation felt in the finish.

Bottle (12oz). This one scares me a bit - I don’t know why, but I see the word "vanilla" in 9/10 beers and .... yikes. Very dark cola-coloured pour with an average fizzy-creamy (somehow) light brown head. That’s a pretty decent aroma - medium roast sweet malt, hint of hop bitterness, vanilla of course - plenty of it - maybe a bit of cola syrup in there. Taste ... okay, here it sort of falls down - like vanilla extract mixed with soda fountain root beer syrup over a base of boring generic brown ale - sweet, cloying, a little harsh in the finish. Light yet sticky body, effervescent rather than lively, almost stinging mouthfeel, syrupy linger and aftertaste - not too good, but better than I expected - really seemed more like a root beer than a beer.