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A dark crimson pour with generous head and visible carbonation. Huge vanilla smell, together with coffee, chocolate, cocoa and caramel. The taste is quite complex and perfectly balanced, with vanilla up front, followed by coffee, alcohol spiciness and malt sweetness blended together with a soft bitterness. The soft carbonation makes for a very nice mouth-feel. Medium-dry finish with a strong vanilla feel that lasts on the palate. One of the best porters around, and I am quite picky about my porters.

Bottle at Cosmic Comic Cafe. Lots of chocolate and coffee. Also vanilla and sweet roasted malts. Moderate bitterness and sweetness. Dry and bitter finish. Excellent!

Pours black, small grey head. Smell is oat, chocolate, mildly bitter. Taste is intense, dark malts , sweet, chocolate (intense) . Some vanilla notes almost. Very complex, and intense, yet balanced out completely. I absolutely love everything about this beer. Perfect MF and carbo. NIce !

650ml bottle from Brewdog online store. Pours black in colour with a foamy beige head leaving alittle lacing and aroma of coffee beans, vanilla, roasted, smoke and chocolate. Taste is dark chocolate, roast malt, toffee, molasses, coffee, vanilla, with booze and grassy bitterness. Smooth mouthfeel, medium bodied, soft carbonation, dry spicy roasted malt finish. Very drinkable.

Bottle, 10%. Black with tiny brown head. Aroma is roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, espresso, little liquorice with notes of alcohol. Flavour is roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, liquroice, espresso, hop, little vegetable, oak, medium sweet, notes of alcohol and bitter.

Bottle from Bier-Deluxe. Black with a lasting brown head. Aroma is sweet, roasted malt, coffee, chocolate and cocoa. Flavor is quite sweet and rather bitter. Dry and roasted rather bitter finish. Oily. 170915

One of the Ballast Point classics, an imperial porter infused with coffee and vanilla, with a morbid yet attractive, arty label as usual with this brewery. Very creamy, lacing, tan coloured head doubting between greyish beige and light yellowish brown, very stable; colour is actually an extremely dark burgundy but looks totally opaque black in the glass. Delightful aroma: mocha, cappuccino, dark chocolate, cured meat, wet leather, dates, wet peppercorns, black olives, gingerbread, indeed vanilla but subtly so, dried grapefruit peel, hint of marmelade, cocoa, kahlua, dry sherry, sharp and stimulating accents of burnt wood, toasted bread, pipe tobacco, cinnamon, candied figs, baked banana sweetness piercing through everywhere. Candied sweet onset, raisins and dates all around, banana, but kept in place with restraining sourish and (especially) umami accents, the latter not becoming too overpowering but just adding a subtle seaweed- or mushroom-like complexity to the whole, tangy and noble, with a soft, gentle carbonation just fit for this style; vanilla sweetness suddenly pops up and accompanies the deep, thick, oily maltiness filling the mouth with well-dosed caramelly, nutty and toasted flavours before plunging into a rich and creamy ’chocolateness’ which leaves a bittersweet coating in the back of the mouth and throat, further dried by peppery, spicy, tangy hops; needless to say, a ’black’, roasted coffee bitterness manifests itself in that phase and keeps lingering far beyond, but one can feel it is from pure coffee rather than from thick roasted barley, as would be the case in the average imperial stout. There is a glow of warming alcohol in the end, but only gently so, and for a 10% ABV beer the alcohol remains remarkably well camouflaged. An almost dame blanche-like sensation remained with me for a long time. I need to get more Ballast Point beers: they are always right on the money. I love imperial porters and frankly, I did not expect this to be anything less than a masterpiece in its style. And they nailed it.