The All-Nighter Vanilla Cappuccino Porter
Cold Garden Beverage Company

Lovely coffee aroma from the beer without having an obnoxiously sweet and artificial coffee flavor. The coffee notes in the beer are subtle and nice.

A- This one pours out of my growler a deep Earthy dark brown that borders black in coloration, and it is mostly opaque in clarity, but I can see through it just looking at it from the underside to the top of the liquid. The head is beige colored, dense and retains reasonably well into a thick-ish froth. The lacing is rather good to with artistic bubbly drawings clinging to the side of my glass.....carbonation is of course too hard to see. Good overall look!

S- The initial aromas are of HUGE cappuccino/black coffee.....French press to be exact and really, this dominates the smell from start to finish. Secondary aromas are of black and chocolate malts, fresh vanilla bean, fresh cocoa and/or dark chocolate with vanilla bean paste. The finish is dry, bitter and robust....a well rounded aroma profile!

T- Very nice indeed! Flavors follow the aforementioned aroma details closely, with heavy fresh black coffee/cappuccino/espresso bean on the palate, along with chocolatey notes and bittering cocoa powder. Black and chocolate malts provide a bitter, dry astringency, Earthiness and grainy character. I also detect a creamy yeasty vanilla that flows well throughout the taste and helps round out the heaviness. A very pleasant flavor profile!

M/O- Creamy mouthfeel with tight carbonation, more of a medium body (not as thick as a lot Stouts would be) and is rather drinkable....especially as it warms up and the flavors become more pronounced....the alcoholic content is well hidden too! If you are a coffee fan, this will most definitely be a porter you will want to check out! I am very glad to have tried Cold Garden out and look forward to many more tastes of this yummy brew!

 

 

 

Picked up a howler of this brew from The Brewer's Apprentice in Calgary (which I foresee it becoming one of my top growler bars)

Appearance - Pours a dark chocolate brown with two fingers of foamy mocha-tinged head.

Smell - Espresso, vanilla, rich malts (chocolate and caramel), chocolate syrup, earthy hops.

Taste - Rich flavours of espresso coffee, vanilla extract, and hearty malts. Touch of earthiness from the hops. Light to moderate level of bitterness from the coffee. Not as sweet as the aroma would suggest.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with light to moderate carbonation. Slight chewiness to the body.

Overall - A fantastic porter from the brewers at Cold Garden. The "vanilla cappuccino" style had the risk of going too sweet, but not in this case; the flavours of the malts, espresso, and vanilla work in harmony and bring out the best in one another. I'd pull an all-nighter if it involved drinking this porter!