Vanilla Irish Stout – Unafraid of the Dark IV

On any given day in the brewery, Annette will come up to the office and drop off some beer for me to taste. I usually take a sip and tell her if I think it is good to go or if it needs modification in some way (e.g., more co2, more pepper, etc.). Kind of like an informal quality assurance / ‘does it match the vision’ test. And, since a fair amount of beer ends up being brought up to me in the morning during any given week, I inevitably end up bringing down a fair amount of little glasses of unfinished beer. After all, I need to stay focused for the day!

Not this morning! Annette dropped of the latest beer in our Unafraid of the Dark series- a Vanilla Irish Stout. 8:00 in the morning be damned – I drank the whole thing! And, boy, was it good!

So let me tell you a little more about this beer. First of all, I thought that we had made every possible stout imaginable, but, this is actually the first Irish Stout that we have ever brewed. Irish stouts are also called dry stouts – and the reason is very clear when you take a sip of this beer. It is quite dry, with no noticeable residual sweetness. The most famous Irish Stout is Guinness, although many folks are probably also familiar with Murphy’s, too.

Once the beer was brewed and fermented, we added vanilla beans to the secondary. The beans came from Flag Hill Distillery in Lee, NH, where they were previously used to flavor one of their rums. Since Irish Stouts are roasty, dry, and light-bodied, we thought the vanilla would soften the roastiness- and it does! But, the beans also allows both flavors to shine through quite nicely.

Here are a few more details on how the beer turned out…
– Appearance: Black with undertones of brown. Light tan head.

– Aroma: Vanilla roastiness in the nose. Makes us smile!
– Taste & Mouthfeel: As per style, this beer is light in body and roasty. When you take a sip, you get the vanilla bean – and the vanilla becomes more prominent as the beer warms up. We actually get some undertones of the rum, too.. not a lot, but it is definitely present!
– Pairing: Pot roast, shepard’s pie, oysters, vanilla ice cream, blue cheese.
– Stats – ABV is 4.8% and IBU is 38

Vanilla Irish Stout will be available starting Thursday, March 4th. We think this beer will be a delicious addition to any St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the near future, or any day really. 🙂

Cheers!
–Nicole