Vanilla Bean Stout
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery

This beer had a huge head, probably because my glass contained the very last of the cask. The beer is black. Smell is mostly vanilla, a faint roastiness is there, though.

Tastes great. They ain't kiddin' about the vanilla, it is the driving force of this beer. Roasted malt is barely perceptable. I would have given the taste a higher score, but the flavor is somewhat one-dimensional. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, smooth carbonation. I could drink this all day.

Appearance - darker beers in Rock Bottom always appear pretty much opaque black due to the low lighting. Rugged mocha head is easy to see though, 2 fingers worth or so with a cratery bubbly cap. Random lacing, streaky on one side, non-existent on the other.

Aroma - rich vanilla aroma is immediate. A slight bit of chocolate in there, but the nose is a vanilla bomb. I like vanilla a lot, but would think there is a way to work some malt or coffee into the aroma somehow. Regardless, it smells great.

Taste - lots of rich chocolate flavor, followed by roasty, lightly charred malts. A pervading sweetness surrounds the palate but gets checked by some balancing hops before getting out of hand. Some increased hop bitterness at the swallow. A noticeable alcohol presence on the aftertaste, ending with a warm delicious vanilla taste. Wondered if that vanilla would show up after such a domination on the aroma. Worth the wait. If I homebrew a stout, I'd love to make it something like this.

Mouthfeel - pretty thin for a stout, yet packed with flavor. Perfect balance. Any thinner it would be a porter, any thicker would be overly filling. Carbonation is muted per the cask style.

Drinkability - outstanding. The abv tastes high enough to exercise caution on quantity, but it's so tasty and smells so good, I could drink one too many of these.

I tried to buy a growler's worth over the weekend, they wouldn't sell it to me! Apparently, going from cask to growler is a bit of a trick. Color me frustrated, I thought I'd go over for a pint or three throughout the week, the cask has already been emptied by many satisfied and selfish customers. Thankfully, they're making more, this time on regular tap...my growlers are waiting... :-)

Simple black with light brown highlights. The toasted tan head was small to start and fell too quickly to a broken film. Thick rings of lace looked good.

The aroma was too weak and didn't become much more prominent with warming. Roasted malt was the extent of the flavor profile. Since the beer was served too cold, no vanilla was appreciated at first. Time and warming helped, but more vanilla would have been great.

Otherwise, specific flavors included lightly sweet chocolate and weak coffee, with a mildly bitter bite during the short finish. Unfortunately, the mouthfeel wasn't substantial enough for a stout. It was reasonably smooth, but wasn't the least bit creamy.

Vanilla Bean Stout is an okay beer, but no more than that. More vanilla bean flavor and a stouter body would be places to start the reclamation project.