Empyrean Brewing Company Dark Side Vanilla Porter

By scot in Beer, Lounge on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Empyrean Dark Side Vanilla Porter

My first official American craft beer from Nebraska: Dark Side Vanilla Porter by Empyrean Brewing Company. This has been down in the cellar for a few months and comes by means of my transactional buddy on the west coast, Jordan.

Now I am down to the following states:

1. North Dakota
2. West Virginia
3. Wyoming

Dark Side Vanilla Porter made my mouth salivate for vanilla; one of my favorite flavors/aromas in an American craft beer. Alas, I couldn’t find any trace of vanilla in Dark Side, which was a bit of a let down. The aroma and flavor were both on the muted end of the spectrum, making me think of this as a “light porter”. Roasted malt is the forerunner characteristic of the beer with coffee and smoke coming in the taste but that’s where it ends. The body is helped out by an ample carbonation that can’t hide the light body, but this does make for an easy drinking porter.

A very sessionable porter that is average for the style: nothing takes it up a notch but, overall, nothing is wrong with it either. Enjoy!

Aroma: 6 (25%), Taste: 6 (25%), Look: 9 (15%), Drinkability: 8 (35%), Overall: 7.2

Useless Fact: The animal with the largest brain in proportion to its body size is the ant.