Thirsty Bear Golden Vanilla

Brewed by Thirsty Bear Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
San Francisco, California USA

Clear straw body with white head. Aroma is medium sweet, lemon, vanilla. Taste is medium sweet, vanilla, light lemon. Watery light body, some crispness.

On tap at the brewpub in downtown San Francisco. Medium golden pour, slight white head. The aroma is somewhat sweet, kind of like cream soda as someone else has mentioned. Very odd flavor, reminds me of boiled peanuts, a delicacy known only to southerners and not meant to be a flavor found in beer! Very artificial tasting. Least favorite of my sampler, kind of like a bad experiment.

Tastes like cream soda. Overly carbonated, and the vanilla flavoring is overpowering, taking all of the beer qualities out of it. Not horrible, but not really beer either. Still an interesting idea.

02.18.05 Paler amber/gold with middling head. Vanilla dominates even the sample sized glass. Made for the masses, it’s light and quaffable but not that good.

Tap. Light amber ale with light vanilla aroma. Tastes like water with vanilla and some white chocolate. Very light. (June 2004).

Tap. Amber, clear, average head. I have to say, the vanilla infusion does some nice thing for the aroma. It had floral and candylike properties that piqued my interest but the vailla comes off a bit too strong in the flavor. I’m no expert brewer, but a bit more malt might do it some good in order to balance out the vanilla dominance. Interesting novelty beer.

This beer has a wonderful vanilla aroma. It’s made with vanilla bean. The taste is a very light ale with dominant vanilla. Light, good in the summer.

On tap at thirsty bear: i used to live in san francisco and have had this beer twice. nice golden brown color...the aroma is surprisingly very vanilla/malt. the first time i had it i loved it....the second time about a year later it tasted like a creme soda, not like a beer. quite interesting and worth trying. for something very different.