Atwater Vanilla Java Porter

Bottle from Corral Liquors in Granite City, IL. Pours an opaque dark brown with a creamy tan head. The nose is of stale coffee, vanilla and a harsh astringency that reduces the nose to a muddled mess that smells a lot like cigarette butts floating in old coffee. The mouthfeel begins light to medium bodied and creamy slick, but it quickly transitions into a severely astringent sourness that obliterates any pleasantness that you might have been experiencing seconds beforehand. The flavor is a disturbing sour note, cold week-old coffee and something that must be vanilla trying to assert itself into the mix...gack! This beer is a complete mess. Destination: drain. Well...at least it looked nice.

(Draught) Pours a dark brown body with a med tan head. Aroma of vanilla, roasted malt, and coffee. Flavor of toasted bread, vanilla, coffee, caramel, and chocolate.

Bottle. Strong roast coffee bean aroma, one of the stronger out there, with vanilla, yeast, ash, and stale air. A huge, creamy, rocky, dense and lacing tan head rests atop the dark brown body. There are notes of roast malt and chocolate in the taste, but they’re hard to get to when that nasty vanilla extract hovers above them and smothers everything it can. Light tartness and a nice dirty, ashen, herbal earthiness (tobacco before drying and after burning). Faint woodiness. Light body but lasting, overly crisp carbonation detracts a bit. Was expecting much more from this.

12oz bottle....dark dark brown , appears black at first...smells burnt--burnt watery coffee like 2-3 days in the pot...flavor is very similar to the aroma with some added vanilla extract and perhaps some soured cream...all this tastes liker it was served out a rusted copper coffee cup....body is unbalanced and even acidic and tart, which is something I don’t like in my porter...price on the shelf was $4.95!!!...but It was given to me for free...thank goodness!!

Dark ruby beer, with a moderate frothy lace - rather bland aroma of artificial vanilla, odd tartness, and some roasty notes - thin-bodied and flavored - mild vanilla and weak-ass coffee - some ash/tobacco - not much else - blah.