Black Irish Vanilla Bean Porter
Scotch Irish Brewing Company

From cask at the Castle on King.

Wow what can I say about Canada’s new micro brewed super star?

The Pulled pint produced a sticky, dead black ale with a rich thick mocha cap that lasted.

Phenominal nose to this brew. Never have I seen 4 aromas marry with such a natural result...the vanilla predominates but does not "dominate" the aroma...Vanilla-toffee-cocoa-bready...wonderful nose to this.

Moderatly rich body, silky mouth feel, rich vanilla-cocoa semi-dry character.

Up front the malts pound the tongue as I never experienced in a porter, astringent "char" from black malt husks is subdued by the natural vanilla tones. Mid palate we get a swirl of cocoa, nuts, vanilla-toffee and a wonderful light bittering which supports the other flavors...finish is long and complex with light drying and bittering riding above the vanilla-caramel-coca tastes...light bready after taste.

A world class flavored porter...from cask there is none better.

Second pint was the cask version of this, casked with vanilla beans, at Volo. Pours like the draft version, nice and black, somewhat opaque, red and brown highlights on the edges, nice thick creamy tan head, lots of lace, and great retention. Smell is amazing, lots of big vanilla, roasty chocolate and coffee, sweet toffee, perfect. Taste is kind of strange, almost whiskey oak notes, chocolate and coffee, vanilla throughout. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with low carbonation, kind of a weak finish, but a nice experiment.

Enjoyed at Volo. This arrived at the table with a fluffy, light brown head (kind of reminded me of a creme brulee) that showed great retention. Big foamy lace too. The beer itself was very dark brown with chestnut highlights. I could smell the vanilla from across the table as the pint was set down. Other aromas included mellow milk chocolate and Quaker instant oatmeal. Vanilla was also pronounced in the flavour, but was balanced nicely by considerable bitterness and malty chocolate. There's also a little brown sugar and roast/burnt character, and there's a little bit of green hops that lingered in the finish. Slight bitter acidity towards the end as well. Low carbonation, as expected, lightish body and a bit of dryness. Yummy. This was a great complement to dessert.

Great small brewery located in Ontario. This was a one-off that they had offered at Cafe Volo in Toronto. They had the regular porter on tap and I was able to check out the two. This was a nice change of pace.

Pitch black pour with tan head, great lacing and retention. Vanilla and coffee aromas.

Creamy goodness with a load of coffee and bitter chocolate enhanced with vanilla. Not a fake vanilla essence, but a real vanilla bean flavor like you get with well done ice creams. Didn't have the smokey quality of the regular, but the vanilla was worth it. Drinkability gets a bit old near the end, but enjoyable nonetheless.