Vanilla Victoria - Inland Empire Brewing Company

MrHirschybar

California

3.63/5  rDev -4.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

A - Red/orange hue - copper like with a white head that stuck around for a bit with nice lacing.

S - Strong vanilla and orange with alcohol booziness.

T - Nice vanilla and orange with a strong alcohol follow through, very noticeable vanilla, orange/citrus follows, and ends with strong alcohol finish -the ABV is there definitely.

M - Clean finish with a big hit of alcohol booziness and a lingering vanilla with the crispness of orange to follow. The alcohol is near overwhelming initially but gets better as this beer warms up.

D - A sipper and definitely some of the strongest vanilla I've had come through on anything with Vanilla mentioned in its name. This has the citrus and orange from the Victoria, with a very nice dose of vanilla - not a hint, you could literally sip the head on this and get vanilla flavor.

Tried this on location at Inland Empire Brewing Company and went home with a growler as requested by my girlfriend - and who's going to argue with such a great decision?

Would love to have seen this last long enough to age or see them bottle it and see how it does with a little time. I hope to see this brewed again as it was the first brew of theirs that inspired us to take home a growler.

Serving type: growler

01-24-2011 02:23:51 | More by MrHirschybar

Halcyondays

California

3/5  rDev -20.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2.5

On-tap at Hollingshead's, apparently Victoria brewed w/Vanilla, aged in bourbon barrels,

A: Pours a dark red, with a foamy soft white head. Solid retention, good lace.

S: Vanilla and isopropanol, super boozy.

T: Some good malty notes and vanilla, but the overall flavour is dominated by booze, ethanol and rubbing alcohol type flavours.

M: Fairly smooth, very boozy, full-bodied, soft carbonation.

D: Kind of a boozy mess. There are some good flavours hidden in there, but they're hard to find. An undercurrent of isopropyl is there throughout. It would be interesting to see where this goes with a couple years of aging though.

Serving type: on-tap

09-14-2010 03:45:40 | More by Halcyondays