Seriously. Do yourself a favor and go try one (if you can). Ballast Point is a brewery in San Diego, CA that started as, and still operates as a HB shop. Not sure if their people ever post here or what their distribution is like, but I'm in the SF Bay area, and it's all over up here, so hopefully you can find some too. I realize they've been brewing this for a couple of years, so if you've had it and this is yesterday's news, you can move on. I've just discovered it, and I WILL let the world know!
Back story: I randomly had a pint of their IPA (called Sculpin) at a local brew pub that was out of my favorite "usual" order. Gave it a try, and wow, it was one of the better IPAs I'd tasted. That was a few months ago.
This weekend, I was considering making a porter, and have always been curious about vanilla porters. I've never tried one, and went to my local Whole Foods looking for one to sample before I started contemplating recipes. The only one I could find at my store was Victory at Sea, a coffee vanilla (imperial) porter by Ballast Point. Knowing how much I liked their IPA, I was excited to try this. Brought it home and poured it. Very dark. Very thick, with a dark brown head. I gave it to my wife to sample first (I like watching her face pucker at roasty beers).
To my astonishment, her eyes widened and she said "Wow, that's really good. I mean REALLY good."
I tried it myself and saw GOD. Yes. When that liquid touched my tongue, the clouds parted, and my kitchen was bathed in holy light. The meld of flavors between the roasted grains, coffee, vanilla, bitterness, etc... is all done to PERFECTION. It is frighteningly drinkable for clocking in at around 10%, and is definitely a winter warmer type beer, but if I can find this year round, I will drink it year round and to be damned with my waistline!
I went back to Whole Foods the next day and bought every bottle they had. There were only 4 left, but at $9 for a 22oz bottle, they are definitely not cheap, but also quite definitely worth every penny. I've already given away two of those bottles, and shared one with a friend at a dinner party last night. I can't help it. I must share this with the world. Forget Coke; if I could give the world a Victory at Sea, there would be no further conflict. There would only be contented nap time.
This is my holy grail. My efforts from now on are going to be to try to replicate/clone this bad boy.
Back story: I randomly had a pint of their IPA (called Sculpin) at a local brew pub that was out of my favorite "usual" order. Gave it a try, and wow, it was one of the better IPAs I'd tasted. That was a few months ago.
This weekend, I was considering making a porter, and have always been curious about vanilla porters. I've never tried one, and went to my local Whole Foods looking for one to sample before I started contemplating recipes. The only one I could find at my store was Victory at Sea, a coffee vanilla (imperial) porter by Ballast Point. Knowing how much I liked their IPA, I was excited to try this. Brought it home and poured it. Very dark. Very thick, with a dark brown head. I gave it to my wife to sample first (I like watching her face pucker at roasty beers).
To my astonishment, her eyes widened and she said "Wow, that's really good. I mean REALLY good."
I tried it myself and saw GOD. Yes. When that liquid touched my tongue, the clouds parted, and my kitchen was bathed in holy light. The meld of flavors between the roasted grains, coffee, vanilla, bitterness, etc... is all done to PERFECTION. It is frighteningly drinkable for clocking in at around 10%, and is definitely a winter warmer type beer, but if I can find this year round, I will drink it year round and to be damned with my waistline!
I went back to Whole Foods the next day and bought every bottle they had. There were only 4 left, but at $9 for a 22oz bottle, they are definitely not cheap, but also quite definitely worth every penny. I've already given away two of those bottles, and shared one with a friend at a dinner party last night. I can't help it. I must share this with the world. Forget Coke; if I could give the world a Victory at Sea, there would be no further conflict. There would only be contented nap time.
This is my holy grail. My efforts from now on are going to be to try to replicate/clone this bad boy.