Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

Friday April 18, 2008

A Flurry of Porters (Part 1):

• Breckenridge Vanilla Porter

“To ski all day and drink great beer every night…” To some this is a pipe dream… well for Richard Squire, founder of Breckenridge Brewery, this soon became life and could you really ask for a better one? Squire started on his passion by home brewing and in February 1990 his pet project took off, opening the first, of three, restaurants and brewpubs in Breckenridge, Colorado. But it wasn’t until May of 1996 that the brews that Squire created were available outside the restaurants. That year, Breckenridge Brewery expanded to a full bottling line to ease the growing demand of their beer. Over the past decade, Breckenridge Brewery went from a small 3,000 barrels-a-year brewpub to 30,000 barrels-a-year, becoming one of the most successful craft breweries in America.

The Vanilla Porter is the first review from Breckenridge Brewery by BeerGenius and I will admit it, not my favourite beer from Breckenridge (Small Batch 471 IPA… just so you know). What this beer does have is an exceptionally dark brown body that lightens out around the edges. I didn’t get too much foam out of my pour, I would say about a half inch of head, with minimal retention. The aroma of the beer is simply great. It was like Starbucks… only with alcohol. The chocolate, coffee, and roasted nut aromas rose out of this beer with a hint of the vanilla that was promised in its name. Aroma and bouquet matched the taste almost perfectly. It started with a full-bodied dark chocolate taste and finished with a creamy hint of vanilla. So I guess it was worth the trip to Madagascar and Papua New Guinea to get the vanilla beans they used to finish off the flavour of this beer. A good way to describe this beer to friends is silky and smooth, and who doesn’t like that.

Body: 16. The Vanilla Porter was rich and dark in colour. The head dissipated for the most part in about two to three minutes.

Nose: 18. Porters have a distinct coffee and chocolate smells to them, now throw in some subtle vanilla notes to the aroma and it just gets better. I did a little more research into the hops that compose this beer, which are; Chinook, Tettinang, Perle, Goulding, and found out most of these are aroma-cultivating hops, which explains the intense nose from this beer.

Character: 18. I have to admit, I really hoped that this beer didn’t turn out like the Grape Pale Ale, where it promised to have a flavour and it didn’t deliver… at the same time, I was afraid that adding something like vanilla would over-power the taste and turn this beer sickly-sweet. Breckenridge put just enough flavour for you to know, but not so much that it over-whelms your senses. It also had a good hop bitterness to malt sweetness.

Originality: 16. How do you make a porter better? Breckenridge Brewery’s idea was to add vanilla beans from halfway across the world during the brewing process.

Versatility: 17. Due to the nature of a porter, it is best to enjoy it after the meal. In fact, the Breckenridge Brewery website, http://www.breckenridgebrewery.com/, suggests making a milkshake out of the Vanilla Porter by adding ice cream. Now doesn’t that sound good!!!

Overall: 85/100. This beer looked good, it smelled good, and it tasted good. Too bad I don’t have an extra one to make that milkshake because I am about ready to make dinner…


Beer: Vanilla Porter
ABV: 4.7%
Brewer: Breckenridge Brewery (Breckenridge, CO)
Availability: Year-round
Reviewed by: Jeffrey Ward

Sorry guys. I got sick and didn’t get a chance to finish the porter post. I will get more of it up next Monday and Wednesday. Thanks.