Ballast Point Victory at Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter

Brewed by Ballast Point Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
San Diego, California USA

This one poured a dark dark brown color with a smaller tan head. Aroma was coffee chocolate and lots of vanilla. Flavor was a strong burst of vanilla, then some sweet chocolate notes, followed by a nice coffee bitter finish. This is some pretty damn good stuff.

Draft at the brewery. A pitch black beer with a thin tan head. The aroma has notes of sweet malt, roasted malt, and lots of chocolate. The flavor has strong notes of coffee and chocolate as well as medium notes of roasted malt.

I started my morning out with this brew. Poured into a pint glass it produced a good two fingers worth of coco colored head that went to a sparse lace. The body of the brew was its obligatory black with no light coming threw at all. The aroma of espresso and sweet chocolate were really pronounced in this brew. There was a slight bourbon vanilla smell in there as well. The flavors were interesting as well the vanilla helped cut the bitterness from the coffee and roasted malts. The feel in my mouth was medium to full with good carbonation. This is a good brew not to spectacular I had better in this hybrid style. It is worth the try and I would not turn it down that is for sure. I killed the bomber with no problem with brunch myself so drinkability is fine

Bottle at Thrashzone. Black with a nice frothy lacing. Coffee-smoke-caramel nose with a bit of vanilla, though that smells like cheap extract. Flavor of cheapish vaniulla extract and coffee. Decent orasted malt but the vanilla is a no-go.

Bomber, shared with Bram. I had been waiting awhile to finally try this beer, and I don’t think it disappointed. Pours viscous dark brown with a small but resilient brown head. Aroma is of very sweet dark chocolate, cocoa powder, and coffee. Similar, but less sweet to Southern Tier’s Mokah. Upon sipping, one is greeted with a chewy, full-bodied mouthfeel, prickled slightly by carbonation. This beer also leans primarily chocolate-sweet, especially inially. The mid-palate brings in toasted coffee to the mix. The finish is full, yet with an interesting dryness. Some mildly coffee-bitter notes emerge as well, but not enough to override the sweetness of this brew. Interesting, very flavorful, and ultimately successful.

Robust Series...yeah! Pours out blacker than black with a dark brown head. Strong smell of coffee and rum and vanilla. Was expecting more of a sweet taste but this floored me with it’s bitterness. So bitter that it bites. Double bitter dose from the hops and those coffee beans. Cacao, dried fig, tobacco and lots of smoke...taste reminded me a little bit of Back Flag (another pirate/ship oriented moniker). The taste was very stout-like and the presence was hardcore on the tongue; but the body remained true to it’s Porter style and was quite smooth and sort of light in it’s own hairy way. I liked this stuff but not sure I could recommend it to all of my other beer loving sailors. Aaargh matey, more for me then...

Bottle shared by psprings at hellbilly’s holiday tasting. Nice deep brown pour with a creamy small head. Nice aroma of coffee, coconut, chocolate and vanilla. Slightly sweet flavor with all of the above and a bit of nuttiness and alcohol. Very good stuff! Thanks Paul.

Tried this beer twice and really tried to like it, probably cause of the high score. Couldn’t do it. Big coffee, vanilla, roasted malts and chocolate from the nose. The mouth is big vanilla and big chocolate notes and just a touch cloying and fairly sweet. Its just so over the top, it like made for hopheads that have ruined their palates on hoppy beers. Love big beers, but this is just too much of everything. Apparently I am not getting that it is supposed to be a dessert beer, so I tried it with dessert the second time I had it and that didn’t improve anything. Way over hyped.