Name – Victory at Sea
Country – United States
Type – American Porter

Yesterday was a crazy day to say the least.  Firstly I had to work the 9 – 5 shift at work as opposed to my typical 11 – 7 one.  This made me remember how much I hate driving in South Florida during rush hour.  Tailgating (not the fun kind), excessive speeds with drastic lane changes, the use of merge lanes to pass people.  Please someone teach the ways of the force so I can force push these idiots out of the way.

Next I checked the tracking number on a package of beer I sent out in a trade only to find UPS damaged it and threw it out.  Now I have to go make a claim at the place that I sent the package out from and send out a new package.  Well one of the bottles was Funky Buddha’s Maple Bacon Coffee Porter and there is no way I can replace that right now because there are no more.  I feel bad for this guy, his stuff is on it’s way already.  I told him about what has gone down and I’m going to try to hook him up good.

Then last night the Phillies go 19 innings with the Reds and the winning pitcher is, Wilson Valdez?  Our utility infielder pitched a scoreless top of the inning before we won it in the bottom.  Nuts right?

Wow that was a bit of a Rob like rant there wasn’t it?  Well onto the beer.  Today I have Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea.  They call it a Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter.  Uh oh, coffee.  Am I scared?  Not really.  I have faith in this one.

It’s poured into my nonic pint glass and it arrives a pitch black color.  There is a maybe one finger light brown head that sits on top.

The nose gives me a lot of cocoa and vanilla.  I’m surprised not to get any real coffee aromas in this.  So far so good in my book.

The taste is a lot of the same cocoa and vanilla flavors but it does make way for a mild coffee taste.  More roasted malt character in there as well.  A creamy body makes this not feel thin and watered down.

Okay so I have had this brew before so I knew going into the review that I enjoyed this one already.  I really enjoy the vanilla taste on here and how subtle the coffee is.  Some may have wanted more of it in there but that’s based on individual taste.

Again Ballast Point makes another supreme brew.  I just hope they can soon expand their reach in Florida all the way down to my neck of the woods (and by woods I mean palm trees and houses that all look the same).

Grade – A