Rohrbachs Vanilla Porter

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

On the night before Thanksgiving, my wife and her family and friends went to Jines Restaurant in Rochester, NY. I was surprised to see they had some of the Rohrbach beers on draught so I could sample them. The first thing I ordered was the Rohrbach Vanilla Porter.

This porter looked great when the waitress brought it out. It was dark brown, almost black in color and had a creamy thick head on it that was tan in color. The smell of vanilla took a minute to come out of the glass as the beer was served too cold. Once it had a good 5 minutes to breathe, you could really pick up on the vanilla aroma on a nice bed of roasted malts. It smelled so good. Nice thing about the beer was that the head stuck around for the full 5 minutes.

Smooth and creamy is how I'd call the drinkability on this one. What you smell in the aroma is pretty much what you get in the taste. The first thing that really hits your tastebuds is the sweet vanilla. Once you get beyond that, you are faced with a nice roasted malt undertone with maybe a hint of caramel and chocolate thrown in there. This is one of those beers that could really have been screwed up by overusing the vanilla flavoring, but it was well done. The flavors were all very well balanced.

Overall this was a solidly crafted beer that I really enjoyed drinking. Well done job by the folks at Rohrbachs.