Move Over, Vanilla Coke: Lawson Creek Vanilla Stout
Aug 29 '02
The Bottom Line A tasty vanilla stout, an oddity as a lagered one.
Vanilla Coke seems to be all the rage these days, and despite what many people might think it’s nothing new. The practice of adding vanilla syrup to your fountain Coke is decades old, and you can still get this done at your local Waffle House restaurant, that is if you have a local Waffle House Restaurant. I’ll do you one better, though. How about vanilla in your beer? Before you stop reading, let me tell you that vanilla works great in stouts and porters. It’s unique flavor lends itself nicely to combination with dark, nutty roasty notes found in those beers, just as it works well with the dark nutty flavors found in cola.
In the past, I have greatly enjoyed vanilla stouts from the Hangtown brewery in California and Gravity Brewing (RIP) in Pennsylvania. These are just a few, of course, of the many such beers available, and they all exhibit a wonderfully creamy character that only vanilla can impart. They were, however, ales, and that makes them a bit different from the current beer under the microscope, Lawson Creek Vanilla Stout.
That’s because Lawson Creek’s Vanilla Stout is a lager. Huh? A lagered stout? Well, why not; after all lagered porters have been around for a long time. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical at first, but far be it from me to pass up a new beer, so I bought a six-pack of this mysterious brew even though I’d never even heard of the brewery (a fact which, in my case, only tends to increase the odds that I’ll buy the beer).
Lawson Creek is based in Cold Spring, Minnesota, former home of the now-defunct Cold Spring Brewing Company, famous for their Cold Spring Export (I’ve had this years ago, I’m suddenly feeling very old). They brew several beers including a pale ale, a red and a honey wheat.
Lawson Creek Vanilla Stout pours to a dark brown color with a light creamy head formation and an assertive vanilla nose. The palate is somewhat light for a stout with a thinner mouthfeel than one might expect for that style. There is a fair amount of roastiness however combined with sweet nutty malt notes, a bit of chewy caramel, and of course some strong notes of vanilla. More of that roasty bitterness can be discerned in the nicely balanced finish.
A nice dessert beer, perfect with a dish of spicy vanilla ice cream with specks of vanilla bean in it. Lawson Creek Vanilla Stout is also very reasonably priced, I picked up a six-pack at my local Kroger supermarket for an astonishing $4.48, about the same price as Budweiser.
EPINIONS CRITERIA:
Overall Rating: Three Stars
Beer Rating: A Solid Performer
Weight: Medium Body
Flavor: Balanced to roasty-bitter
Complexity: Average
Price: $4.48 per six-pack
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