Since Peaks and Pints began our daily beer sample flights with themes we have received approximately 3 hundred emails a week proclaiming, “Today is National Cheese Doodle Day!” or “It’s National Candied Orange Peel Day!” It’s the job of PR people to invent this stuff, and we respect that. It’s their job to dangle the carrot (National Carrot Day is Feb. 3, incidentally) in front of our noses — “Easy blog post! Hi res images! Soundbites!” — and our job to celebrate it. It’s the circle of life (and it moves us all). Today is National Vanilla Pudding Day. The earliest packaged pudding in the United States was marketed by My-T-Fine in 1918. This and other puddings like them still required cooking on the stove. The instant version came along in the mid-1940s. Peaks and Pints vanilla craft beer flight came along Monday, May 22 2017. That’ right PR people. We grabbed the carrot and came up with a craft beer flight with added vanilla. Enjoy Craft Beer Crosscut 5.22.17: A Flight of Vanilla.
Wingman Perfect Proctor Porter
6.1% ABV
Wingman Brewers and Peaks and Pints collaborated on the Perfect Proctor Porter, a slight deviation of Bert Grant’s famous Yakima Brewing & Malting Co. Grant’s Perfect Porter. We skipped the Scottish peated malt and added a whole vanilla bean plus Cascade hops for bittering. Our version of the porter, perfect really, pours smooth with roast, slight hop and mellow vanilla notes.
Ballast Point Victory At Sea
10% ABV
Victory at Sea’s story begins in 1992, when a homebrewer named Jack White, recognizing the dearth of good supply shops nearby with which to augment his hobby, opened Home Brew Mart near Mission Beach in San Diego. Another homebrewer, Yuseff Cherney, soon joined him, and together the two moved the brews they were making in their back yards to the back of the shop. In 1996, Ballast Point was born. Victory at Sea smells like breakfast — Aromas of cappuccino gelato and medium-roast coffee with milk meld with subtle background vanilla notes as well as bits of sourdough and brown sugar. In the flavor, Victory at Sea switches to dessert. Bitter medium-roast coffee flavors play at the sides of the tongue while chocolate, vanilla and caramel build at the front. Toast and molasses make appearances as well, and alcohol heat rolls down the throat, noticeable but not overpowering.
Hop Valley VIP Vanilla Infused Porter
5.9% ABV, 50 IBU
Those who have tasted vanilla porters spoiled by an overpowering vanilla flavor will especially appreciate Hop Valley’s VIP Vanilla Infused Porter. Vanilla beans are added to the conditioning tank in this robust porter. Its vanilla flavor balances with the rest of the beer without fading into the background, while the chocolate and coffee flavors act as complements.
Founders Curmudgeon
9.8% ABV, 50 IBU
Founders Brewing calls its Curmudgeon an old ale, as in a traditional English ale mashed at high temperatures then aged after primary fermentation. Old ales are all about the big malts; Curmudgeon is all over that like an old man watching his lawn. It pours a deep mahogany with a light brown head. The nose picks up alcohol amidst molasses, dark fruits, caramel, vanilla and some wood. We can’t place any hops in the nose because the malts are beating down the hops with a cane. The taste mirrors the aroma, with an almost bourbon-like finish.
New Holland Dragon’s Milk Reserve Mexican Spice Cake Bourbon Barrel Stout
11% BAV, 70 IBU
This limited release variant of New Holland’s year-round Bourbon Barrel Stout is aged in bourbon barrels for three months, with toasted chiles, cocoa nibs, vanilla and cinnamon added during aging. The chocolate character in Dragon’s Milk is enhanced by the soft chili heat and mellowed out by the flavors of vanilla and cinnamon. If you really enjoy the hot and spicy character than this one is for you.
