Today, Nov. 10, has been designated Vanilla Cupcake Day by someone. Nobody knows exactly who, and who cares? The real question is why it’s not a national holiday. According to NationalDayCalendar.com, cupcakes can be traced back to 1796, when there was a recipe for “a cake to be baked in small cups” in American Cookery by Amelia, Simmons, a great woman. They were originally baked in heavy pottery cups — sounds like a messy cleanup. The paper cups are less fussy. Vanilla beans, like coffee and chocolate, only proliferate naturally in tropical latitudes, and, like wine grapes, the various strains reflect the qualities of the soil in which they are grown. This makes Mexican vanilla different from Madagascar vanilla, Tahitian different from Ugandan. For many years now, vanilla has been the adjunct that takes a craft beer’s status from gold to platinum, instantly raising its secondary value to ridiculous levels. Enough with the enough talk, let drink five craft beers with vanilla in their recipes. Enjoy Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Vanilla Cupcake Day.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Vanilla Cupcake Day
Eredita The Barn Owl
10.5% ABV
Chris Papallo began homebrewing in 2013 after receiving a Heady Topper “clone” as a Christmas gift from his wife. After falling in love with brewing, Papallo took a course on small batch brewing at Sterling College. He became a brewer and cellarman at Twelve Percent Beer Project from October 19 to June 2020, and then became the assistant brewer at Hill Farmstead Brewery from June 2020 to August 2022 before opening Eredità Beer in North Haven, Connecticut, at the state-of-the-art facilities at Twelve Percent. Switch out your iced vanilla latte for this for Eredità’s The Barn Owl imperial coffee stout brewed with dark and roasted malts, milk sugar, espresso sourced from Brazil, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, and vanilla beans sourced from Papua New Guinea.
AleSmith Speedway Stout: Rocky Road Edition
12% ABV
Brewed for the 2024 AleSmith Speedway Grand Prix, AleSmith Brewing’s signature Speedway coffee imperial stout has added cacao nibs, roasted almonds, roasted walnuts, Madagascar vanilla beans, coffee, and natural flavors.
Arpus Peanut Butter x Vanilla x Coffee Imperial Stout
12% ABV
Dark and espresso black through the center, Arpus Brewing’s Peanut Butter x Vanilla x Coffee Russian imperial stout releases a dainty and short-lived mocha froth along with a sugary scent of vanilla cream, caramel and coffee with a background scent of peanut. Its taste picks up on that sweetness with a confectionary upstart of marshmallow, mocha milkshake, French vanilla, fudge and cake batter. Rising coffee flavors add a balance and welcomed dryness with its earthen char, smoke and campfire character.
Lumberbeard Black Daylight
14.2% ABV
Bret Gordon left the University of Colorado with a degree in Economics and a passion for craft beer. He continued into the finance world, probably sipping an Avery Brewing beer here and there. It didn’t take long for him to realize that being at a desk was not for him and he wanted to become a professional brewer. That passion led him and his family to California where he went back to school to earn a Professional Brewing Certificate at the University of San Diego. He swore he would never go back to school, but beer will make you do some crazy things. From there, Gordon worked as a professional brewer for several years at SoCal breweries, including The Bruery. In 2018, Gordon and his family traveled north to Spokane and opened Lumberbeard Brewing, a 20-barrel brewhouse on the east end of downtown. Gordon’s Black Daylight imperial stout is aged in Dry Fly Distilling wheat whiskey barrels for over a year and then finished with hand-cut vanilla beans.
Anchorage We’re All Replaceable
18.9% ABV
Anchorage Brewing’s We’re All Replaceable quadruple barrel aged imperial stout is aged in Henry McKenna bourbon for 18 months, then Old Elk bourbon for 14 months, then Russell’s Reserve bourbon for 8 months, and then Bernheim Barrel Proof bourbon for 6 months. Next, Republic of Congo and Ugandan vanilla beans are added. Then, it’s blended with Double Oaked Blessed Imperial Stout aged 27 months in a blend of Willett and Calumet Farms bourbon barrels. Finally, it’s finished on toasted and raw coconut plus Madagascar vanilla beans.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
