Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Porter
Escondido, California USA

Black with a white head about half a finger wide. Smells like vanilla and roasted malts. Tastes like vanilla cake batter and frosting...reminds me of something I got from this one guy one time...but that’s a whole other story. The mouth is very light and thin...drinkable, not great but not bad.

Cask (handpump) @ White Horse on Parson’s Green, 1-3 Parson’s Green, Greater London, England SW6 4UL.
Clear dark black color with a small, fizzy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is heavy malty, milk chocolate, cacao, vanilla, moderate alcohol, smoke - wood notes. Flavor is heavy sweet and moderate to light heavy bitter with a long duration, and a smokey notes. Body is medium, texture is creamy, carbonation is soft to flat. [20090807]

Unfortunately, the beer somehow went flat by the time I got around to writing this. Still, vanilla is definitely present on the nose, although toned down a bit due to the lack of bubbles. Flavor is characteristically smoked porter, some vanilla flavor and very sweet, although also distinctly hoppy, with grass dominating over floral, so like Stone. A nice reworking of the original smoked porter.

On cask @ The Daily Pint. Deep hazy brown with a one-finger light beige head, good retention. Lots of vanilla and milk chocolate up front with some roasted malts and toasted grain. Lots of vanilla in the flavor--almost seems artificial (but still good). with stronger roasted malts. Still some milk chocolate, but failing to pick up on any smoked notes, as with the American oak version. Semi-dry roasty chocolatey finish with bitterness @ a 3. Light carbonation with a medium body.Good beer, but falls more to the dessert beer category, despite the light to moderate sweetness. Gimme some Devil’s food cake with this and I’d be set.

Pours cola colored with just a halo of white suds. Light body full of artificial tasting vanilla cola. I like the normal smoked porter but this is like a bit of a novelty...and the body seems significantly lighter than normal for some reason...maybe like the way diet vanilla coke barely taste like diet at all..that makes no sense. I don’t know, the body seems thin and flimsy, the vanilla tastes artificial and I’m not getting any smoke or other roasty or malty characteristics from the malts. Overall, a dissapointment...how does one fuck up a vanilla bean porter?

On tap at Small Bar in University Heights. Nice little place they opened up there to go along all the other trendy craft ale pubs in the area. This is a nice take / improvement on a beer that I dont fancy all that much. Pitch black color with a dense off-white head. Medium carbonation. Lovely aroma of baked vanilla beans and ice cream, with earthy chocolate tones underneath. Vanilla flavor stands out much less than the aroma, but still delivers a good dose of smoke and chocolates. The bean is most noticeable at the smoke transition on each sip. Overall, the aroma is one of the best in any vanilla beer I’ve had. Flavor fades rather quickly, but a thick palate makes up for it.

Reviewed 8/16/2009 (Draft at Flying Saucer, Houston, TX): Pours a dark black body, with a small creamy off-white head, diminishing. Smoke on a full whiff. Robust aroma, coffee, and some vanilla and chocolate. Enticing combo of flavors. Chocolate, coffee taste, some smoke aftertaste. Vanilla present too. The vanilla and the smoke are in opposites, doesn’t quite work for me.

Tap at Shallo’s. Pours pitch black with faint red edge (though it’s pretty dark in here) and 2-finger beige cake batter head that just won’t go away. Nose is strong vanilla coffee over sweet roasted malts and sugar cookies. Flavor is bitter dark roasted malt with a smooth balance of roasted coffee beans and creamy vanilla. Still has a rough ’smoked’ character, but this is an excellent example of a 1-off. Very dry on the mouth, but very nice.