Harbour Vanilla Imperial Stout

Brewed by Harbour
Style: Imperial Stout
Bodmin, England

Serve in Snifter

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29th March 2013
Euston Tap. Opaque dark brown beer, little pale tan head. Palate is soft with fine carbonation. Lovely sweet vanilla ice cream! Mild dark malt with a light touch of chocolate. But this really is a vanilla sweet treat! Crispy minerals. Way too drinkable!

Keg at Euston Tap, London. A black coloured pour with a medium beige head on top. Massive sweet vanilla aroma. Tastes of vanilla, chocolate, slightly malty, sweet, smooth and very rich. Almost dessert like. A very nice stout.

Keg at the Euston Tap, London. Pours black-brown with a moderate, creamy beige head. Truck loads of vanilla in the nose - it’s almost like aniffing vanilla extract - with other notes of subtle roast and dark chocolate. Big sweet flavor, rich but I wouldn’t say cloying, with chocolate cake, saucy vanilla, chocolate frosting, mellow burnt wood, nipe of alcohol, toasted brown sugar, some fruitcake, suggestions of ripe fruits, raisins, plums. Full bodied with fine to average carbonation, and lightly chewy. Lightly warming to finish, lots of dark sugars, decadent chocoate, cuts of maple syrup, hefty chocolate cake, further vanilla, perhaps syrupy vanilla, rich bread, mellow burnt earth bitterness. Quite an indulgent beer overall. Nicely balanced and layered.

Keg @ Hanging Bat [230113]
Very dark brown, filthy dense tan head. Aroma is big time milk chocolate, nice sweet dark malt with some soft vanilla, superb nose. Taste is dark chocolate malts mixed with vanilla ice cream - it’s a beery ice cream float, great flavour, it was sweet and vanilla but not sickly which it could easily have been. Soft carb and a medium to full body, very smooth dark malts. Finish as main flavour with some booze, nice chocolate vaniila malts. Overall - Didn’t notice the barrel aging here but this was a great vaniila ice cream chocolate imperial stout.

Aroma: Huge aroma vanilla ice-cream and chocolate.

Appearance: Black body with a medium beige head. Great lacing.

Taste: Sweet flavours of raisin, vanilla and chocolate. Nice roasted malt character. It’s so drinkable it almost feels like a 4.0% ABV stout.

Palate: Medium body with a sleek, luscious mouthfeel. Flat carbonation.

Overall: Very sweet and rich. Surprisingly drinkable despite its strength.

[cask at the Hanging Bat, Edinburgh] Stout brewed with cocoa nibs and aged for three months in a Jack Daniels barrel with 90 vanilla pods. As you’d expect, pours very much the pitch-black stout, with a large lightly tan-coloured head. Frankly, a huge milk chocolate aroma – the combination of vanilla and cocoa gives the nose of an Easter egg. On the taste, smooth, sweet and slightly caramelly, the vanilla and chocolate arrive at the end and swamp everything. I loved it – others didn’t, they found it too sweet – which is fair enough. This one is like eating an entire box of chocolates. Halfway down the glass, you’re already on the bottom layer of the box [22012013]

cask at the bat ... deep black ... big rich tan tan head... big big chocolate and vanilla ... huge vanilla nose ... soift chocolate roast ... roast malts ... soft mellow vanilla ... mellow chocolate ... long soft vanilla finish 3.9