Landmark Vanilla Bean Brown Ale

Brewed by Flying Bison Brewing
Style: Brown Ale
Buffalo, New York USA

Poured a dark amber color with a small, off white head that left light lacing on the glass. Aroma of vanilla extract, caramel malts, light toast, and a bit of earth as well. Taste of caramel malts, light nuts, vanilla, brown sugar, and that’s about it... Regular, nothing special.

Draft at BT. Pours a ruby brown body with a tan head. Immediate chocolate, lightly toasty, the vanilla seems drown out a bit. Kinda reminiscent of a root beer float. Sweet unattenuated sugars, very light on your palate. Not great.

12 oz bottle. Pours a deep amber brown and a foamy overcarbed head- with little lace. Aroma is cardboardy oxidized, light stale vanilla hints, light toast and dry nuttyness, salty stale crackers, ligth olive brine, and slight infection. Carbonation explodes in mouth- infection- toffee, ash, vanilla, light roast and nuttiness, stale oxidized malts, marshmallow, and a leathery earthy note in the end. Finish is a bit abrupt and slick. meh

Tap at the Blind Tiger. The vanilla in this was unmistakable, however the beer offered little else of interest. A decent body with a bit of sweet, nutty malts present, and a slight hint of cocoa and hops in the aroma. The vanilla was a bit too strong to keep this easy drinking, and it had a harsh carbonation in tow.

Tap at Spuyten Duyvil: Pours deep brown with ruby at the edges topped by a tan head. This stuff is weird. The aroma is very enticing with a unique yet distinct vanilla bean quality as well as coffee & truffle. The flavor upfront is roasty with hints of peat and toasty vanilla bean; with a coffeeish middle. The later flavors are out of balance and a bit vinegar like. Everything in there seems to be extract-like; nothing is natural about it. This stuff was close to being ok.

12oz bottle, generously shipped to me (as an accidentally left-behind extra from our in-person trade at Cooperstown) courtesy of beastiefan2k. Thanks, Eugene! Pours a dark, hazy brown color; enormous, seriously huge light-tan head with great retention and lacing; looked like coffee ice cream atop a brown ale; infected from the get-go, with that kind of carbonation. But..onward! Lots of tart citrus, cola, and cocoa in the aroma; most definitely some infection, but I’ve an awful suspicion (from the previous ratings) that this might be something of an improvement; nothing offensive or off-putting or rough, just nice tart citrus melded to cocoa notes. Medium, fizzy mouthfeel: way over-carbonated, but at least it isn’t small-bubbled sharpness; fizzy, soft cola, cocoa, and citrus, with a very soft note of vanilla (hard to tell if it’s legitimate or syrup, just because it’s so slight compared to the citrus and the cola); slightest touch of chalkiness from the cola note, but otherwise a fairly drinkable, lightly soured brown ale. Not nearly as bad as Eugene and I were hoping for, sadly. Medium finish: citrus, cocoa, and lots of toasty bready notes.

(bottle - 12 oz) Very dark ruby red, almost brown pour, with a very thin tan head that leaves quickly. Aroma is a light mixture of vanilla, mocha, hazelnut, and brown sugar. Flavor is a lot of vanilla with some roasted malts and a very bitter coffee finish. Almost tastes like a root beer float. Very thin and in dire need of more flavor.

Brown pour with a moderate head, average lacing and retention. Aroma is vanilla, nuts, caramel, hint of hops. Medium bodied but overly acidic. That alone basically killed this. However, it also needs a better malt base. Finally, I feel it’s necessary to repeat how horribly acidic the finish is... it killed it. This idea has a lot of potential, but this came off like a really bad version of Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar.