BA Aurox W/ Vanilla Bean
Alluvial Brewing Company

 

Look: Pours from the bottle dark brown. Sits in the glass opaque, black, with an espresso foam-colored head. A finger of foam settles to a thin veil across the top of the beer, eventually disappearing, and a thick ring of foam around the glass. Some bubbles streaming up along the side of the glass. Some very nice lacing as I drink the beer and long legs strut their way down the side of the glass as I take each sip. Nice indications of some sugary sweetness.

Nose: The smell of this beer is great. It is barrel forward. I am slightly peeved by the “barrel aged” indicator on the side and can assume it is bourbon, but I have no idea. It’s hard to tell if the vanilla aroma is coming from the barrel or the actual vanilla, but I think that speaks to the seamless integration of the individual components that make up the overall aroma. The level of vanilla on the nose is soft and tantalizing. Many barrel and base stout qualities present here. Vanilla, toasted coconut, chocolate / dark fruit that comes through as raisinette. There is also a definitive caramel sweetness. A faint hint of cinnamon. An nice touch of warm alcohol.

Taste: Up front the beer has flavors of milk chocolate, dark chocolate and cocoa. The flavors quickly shift to a burnt coffee, toasted dark bread flavor with woody, toasty, bitter profile with cocoa powder dryness. This is a drinking beer, if one can be a bit rough around the edges. Not an impression beer. And I’m quite enjoying it.

Feel: My imperial stouts must not always be thick, especially if the flavors hit the spot. But in this case, the feel is a bit thin. I do like the sticky sweetness left on my lips. I always do. Some welcomed warmth on the tongue and pipes.

Overall: I am enjoying this beer. The vanilla aspect is nice, but it’s hard to decipher how much that adds to the beer, especially without having the base beer, if it exists. If you’re looking for a vanilla bomb, this is not the beer for you. But it never goes artificial. And that I like. This beer is not balanced due to the acrid profile mid palate and on the finish. It could use a bit more heft on the feel and additional sweetness on the flavor. When all is said and done though, I greatly enjoyed the beer. I like the shift in flavor. Starts out a bit sweet and ends on a completely different note. Nice complexity.