Saranac Vanilla Stout

A few days ago I tried Saranac's Lake Effect Lager, and gave it a pretty favourable review.  I've got a few more beers in my collection from these guys and the review will be coming in over the next few days.

When you name a beer 'Vanilla Stout', it's different from a generic name like 'Lake Effect' or 'Highland' - the expected flavour is right there in the name.  And the name  is bound to raise a few eyebrows - Vanilla and Stout don't usually go together.

In case you were wondering, stout is the kind of beer that basically provides you with a meal in a glass - it's heavy, it's dark, it's thick and it fills your gut nicely.  Probably the most famous example is Guinness - the strong, toasty Irish beer which sells millions upon millions of units every year.

Combining that with vanilla seems like an odd move to me - I can see it being added to some ales or bitters, even porters, but stout seems like too strong a style to lend itself to vanilla flavours.  Upon trying Vanilla Stout, my suspicions were sadly confirmed.

My first impression, on a couple of mouthfuls, was that there was way too little vanilla in the aroma.  I could just about detect it - but it was so lost amid the hoppy aroma that I wondered for a moment if they'd mis-labelled the bottle.  The overall smell I got was the scent of a cold snowy day, with an undertone of hops.  It wasn't unpleasant, just unexpected.  It's got a suitably dark appearance, as one would expect from a stout, with a respectable head.

The taste is overpoweringly soapy, and rather bitter, with a very strong aftertaste of toasted barley.  I normally enjoy that, but add it to the bitter, malty, soapy taste and it's just a bit too much.  More than once I grimaced as I swallowed another mouthful - it became a bit of an endurance test to finish it.  Moreover, my drinking partner (who is also my biggest fan) couldn't face the whole glass and handed me hers to finish - this just added to the challenge.

One redeeming feature here was the brew's good, thick head - it had a creamy texture which was a pleasant surprise.  It contrasted nicely with the mouthfeel of the beer, which had some carbonation.

There's a problem I've routinely encountered with some craft beers - a pleasant malty flavour can become unpleasantly soapy if overdone.  Usually I've only encountered this problem with British ales, I think this is the first time I've had the problem this side of the pond.  It's a shame.

It's a stout, but may be too heavy to be enjoyable by most drinkers.  The 'vanilla' aspect seemed mostly absent, suppressed by the stout's strong hop and malt flavours.  I didn't enjoy it, and it seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

2 out of 5.