Whiskey Barrel-Aged Vanillaphant Porter
Avondale Brewing Co.

 

 

 

This is literally one of the best beers i have ever tasted. The hints of chocolate and vanilla come out in the porter and then the barrel adds to the flavor to make it the all around perfect beer. there is a hint of liquor that adds to the aftertaste that you can't find anywhere else. the flavors seems to come out, first at the initial taste and then it is followed by the hint of jack daniels mixed with the coffee and chocolate from the original beer. phenomenal.

 

 

 

Served in a large goblet at mellow mushroom, huntsville, al

A: black, very little head that dissipated quickly, no lacing at all
S: not much at all
T: vanilla, coffee, burnt malt, bitter on the aftertaste
M: good body but not too cloying, fizzy but very brief carbonation
O: very good effort, worth having another

 

 

 

 

served on-tap into a pint glass @ Suds of the South beerfest

*This is Avondale's already-existing Vanilla Porter (that doesn't have a Beer Advocate listing for some reason) that has been aged in Jack Daniels barrels. This might be a festival-only beer for Avondale or they might make more of it. They should make more it.*

Pours a pretty dark brown. It's close to black, but more of a dark cola kind of color. Maybe one finger of head the color of lion's pelt, but I don't expect a lot of head from barrel-aged beers.

This beer smells and tastes like Southern Tier Creme Brulee would if Creme Brulee weren't a garish cartoon of a beer. Make no mistake, this is a sweet dessert beer. But it still tastes like a beer. There's a base porter here that's mostly brown malts and a touch of chocolate. That base porter has vanilla also, but it isn't a synthetic, chemical vanilla (like in beers such as Breckenridge Vanilla Porter). What the barrel does, as you might have guessed, is to heighten and enhance that vanilla flavor/aroma. Vanilla is a common characteristic of barrel aging, so the whole enterprise becomes real sweet real fast. The finish is literally reminiscent of ice cream.

Silky mouthfeel. Lowish carbonation but that's not much of a concern considering that silkiness and how it plays well with the sweet flavors.

But, again unlike Southern Tier Creme Brulee or similar vanilla-forward dessert beers, Avondale still has a beer here. There's maltiness that doesn't crumble in the face of vanilla adversity. It's a beer that works. I just wouldn't want to have that much of it at a single time.