I just bottled a batch of this yesterday. I'm not much of a dark beer kind of guy (the dark you can chew), but my plan was to brew this for my father and brother-in-law for Thanksgiving. I did my obligatory taste prior to bottling though, and now I'm not sure I want to give it away! It surprised me how good it was straight out of the primary. It's a darkER beer, but definitely not a heavy, overwhelming one. I think what I don't like about many dark porters and stouts is that they tend to get so heavy on the toasted and smoky flavors that it tastes like you're chewing on a piece of burnt firewood and not drinking a beer. This porter is so well balanced that you don't get any one overwhelming flavor though. The flavors really just play off of each other perfectly. And this is prior to any bottle conditioning after the vanilla has been added! Needless to say, I'm looking forward to trying this in a month or so.
I will be interested to brew this one a second time just as a comparison - For this batch I had to use Nottingham, and as luck would have it the weather spiked about 15 degrees while it was actively fermenting (I was away on a business trip so couldn't move the primary to a cooler spot), so I'm pretty sure I fermented higher than I would have liked - probably 70-75 degrees. On the edge for sure. Regardless, the first sample was very promising. Great recipe!