Stone Brewing Company Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean

Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Stone Brewing Company Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean.

From the Stone Brewing Company website: ”Stone Smoked Porter w/ Vanilla Bean was the brainchild of Small Batch Brewer Laura Ulrich, who had a stroke of genius after trying Stone Smoked Porter poured over a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream. The complex flavor of Madagascar vanilla beans melds perfectly with the chocolatey, malty, coffee-like character of the beer, making it almost like a liquid dessert, but without an overbearing sweetness.”

Let’s get started!

Appearance: Pours a dark brown, nearly black with a thick frothy tan head and had some nice lacing.

Aroma: Huge vanilla scent followed by chocolate, coffee, and roasted malts.

Taste: Vanilla takes center stage followed by caramel and roasted malts, coffee and dark chocolate.  A tasty treat!

Overall: Rich, creamy and incredible Stone Brewing Company’s Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean is yet another A+ product from a brewery that produces top notch beers. At 5.9% ABV I am driven to drink several, but I only bought one. I’ll pick this one up again without a doubt.

Cheers!

Mark Harvey