Beer Review: Vanilla Bean Abraxas

Reviewing the Vanilla Abraxas from Perennial Artisan Ales out of St. Louis, Missouri. This is Abraxas with substantially more vanilla beans added.

Score: 91

Tap pour served in a snifter glass and enjoyed on 11/15/13. Review is from iPhone notes

Appearance: Inky black body with a thin layer of tan/khaki head that was lighter in color than the Coffee Abraxas was side-by-side. Great lacing and retention. 5/5

Smell: Very fresh vanilla bean and marshmallow forward aroma. Also present are chocolate and cinnamon/spice in substantially lesser quantum than the vanilla notes. The cinnamon/spice is muted in comparison to Coffee Abraxas, and virtually nonexistent relative to the base beer. This is beer does not scream "hey, I am a variation of Abraxas" but nonetheless features an enticing aroma. Notes of caramel and brown sugar too. Very nice. 4.5/5

Taste: Like the nose, the vanilla character dominates the taste. Cinnamon flavor is present in greater quantity than the nose led on, but no pepper spiciness to be found. Chocolate and brown sugar notes too. The taste is quite solid, but it's less integrated than the nose. Further, I found the beer to be bit overpoweringly sweet and a touch boozy relative to the base beer and coffee variant. Although tasty, I admittedly struggled to finish my 8 oz pour without feeling full. 3.75/5

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, spot on carbonation. Creamy and slick mouthfeel, though seemingly less creamy than Coffee Abraxas. Sweet, but not quite "Dark Lord sweet." 4/5

Overall: Good, not great, and a far cry from Abraxas/Barrel Aged Abraxas/Coffee Abraxas in quality. In fact, there is very little "Abraxas" about this beer outside the cinnamon. One of the best qualities about regular Abraxas is how balanced it is, and here the added vanilla comes at the expense, for the worst, of the other ingredients and is just too dominant in my opinion. What's left by the tinkering of this variant is a solid vanilla stout with a cinnamon twist, but certainly not an improvement upon one of the best stouts out there.

Cost: $10 for an 8 oz glass.