Vanilla Bean Barrel Aged Peoples Porter
Foothills Brewing Company - Downtown Brewpub

 

Big thanks to the boys at The Community Tap for breaking this cask out for growler fills!

Pours a deep toasted oak brown with little head and medium tan lacing.

The smell is overwhelmingly vanilla, mixed with hints of oak, bourbon, chocolate, and cream

Taste is ruled by smooth vanilla, some bourbon, toast, malt and cream.

Mouthfeel is medium, with lower carb and soft, silky edges on the palate.

This is amazing, glad I got some more to age.

Another great addition to the lineup at the cask fest at Duckworth's yesterday. Everything really came off great during the afternoon, This was served in the standard 11.5oz glass and filled to the rim. Consumed on 03/27/2010.

Nice pour out of the gate as the blackness of the porter overtakes the glass except for a few touches of light sneaking through on the bottom and side. Small head of tan leaves quickly but there is some decent lacing left in its wake that soon fades off as well. Aroma is dominated by vanilla, not insanely sweet but pure vanilla mixed with hints of cocoa and bourbon. Light roasted malts floating around as well. Warming brings up molasses and hints of wood. Smooth, creamy feel accents the flavor very nicely and allows the vanilla and bourbon to soak through on the tongue. The only real fault here is the loss of the dark roasted malts and coffee notes that seem to be overshadowed by huge vanilla beans. Smooth, easy drinking and a really nice and mellow finish.

Overall nice job here, needed a little more chocolate and coffee to balance out the huge vanilla flavors but I still think it worked quite well. Would have no issue in trying this again.

Cask at the Brewtopia fest at Grapevine in Fort Mill SC. Dark brown pour with reddish highlights. Miniscule white head that faded quite quickly. Peaty roast malt and chocolate nose is dominated by vanilla. Tastes is a good mix of vanilla, oaky molasses, peat and chocolate. The vanilla is probably the strongest, but that accompanies the barrel very well. The "porter" is a bit lost in there.
Pretty standard medium body. My friend thought this was too overpowered by the barrel. I thought this was actually a pretty good balance and even better than the regular barrel aged porter I had at the S.C. release event. This is much less barrel offensive and more drinkable.