Cult of the Untrue - Vanilla
The Courtyard Brewery

 

a molasses based porter that apparently gets a lot of different variant treatments, including a peanut butter one which now has me curious. they had vanilla working while i was there at the brewery, and it really is a special beer, one of the best ones we had in here, and quite distinct with the intense sticky unrefined molasses meeting bitter, earthy, and cocoa-like dark grains, there is a huge depth to the nose and the taste from these elements, which go together so well. it has imperial qualities in terms of its complexity to the extent that its almost shocking its as low alcohol as it actually is. the vanilla remains subservient to both the molasses and the roasted barley, its desserty and real tasting, whole bean sort of situation, but its held back enough to only be an accent. more of it would be too much i reckon, and i like the bitter staying around through the finish and the raw nature of the molasses working alongside it. smooth and fuller bodied, really neat roasty, chocolate, and brown sugar elements, but its a beer i could drink a few of. seems holiday-esque to me, fancy and special, different for a low abv porter. a memorable and delicious beer, super curious to try some of the other variants...