So I am about to reveal a weakness of mine to brewers. If you want to get my attention, throw a flavor enhanced version of a brew in my face. Now I'm not talking about just tossing any random flavor in a beer. Many have tried that approach and most have failed miserably. I'm talking about tossing in an extra amount of a flavor that is already a normal trait of a certain style. Most of us have seen one version or another of this approach. An example of this method is a chocolate stout. While a standard stout usually has a baseline amount of chocolate in the flavor train, bumping the chocolate profile up a few notches normally makes for a more intense and interesting brew experience. Another example of this method recently crossed my path in the form of the Vanilla Java Porter from Atwater Block Brewery.

When poured, the Vanilla Java Porter has a mahogany coloration with some brighter ruby redness to it around the edges. A minimal head forms on a highly aggressive pour and there is only spotty lacing left through about half of the session, at which point it disappears completely. The main aroma coming from the glass is perfectly prefaced by the name. It's vanilla, and a lot of it. It comes through as somewhat basic, and has a bit of an ''extract'' quality to it. Once you get past it, there are some generic layers of chocolate, coffee, and even some excess sugar. Overall, the initial introduction comes across as very candied and sweet.

The first taste of it introduces you to a very hard to move past mouthfeel. It is dangerously thin and highly carbonated. If you were blindfolded and it were placed in front of you, I could see where one might mistake it for some sort of soda from the nose and mouthfeel alone. As far as the flavors go, the vanilla is again very upfront, and once again has more of an extract feel to it rather than something more natural. Some slightly bitter coffee is noticeable, but is somewhat lacking in the character department. Faint notes of chocolate come through at very random moments. At the very end there is a pretty distracting and strange flavor combination of metallic sugar. That's right, I said metallic sugar. That is the only way I can describe it. I even had someone else try it and they could only back me in my description.

The Vanilla Java Porter is one of those beers where the intent was not only justified, but very exciting at first glance. Unfortunately , things head downhill in a hurry from there. I have to give Atwater Block Brewery credit for going for it here, but the final result just seemed to come up short. The flavors didn't quite seem to come together as one might hope, and the body and mouthfeel were a bit on the thin side for a porter in general. I would have a hard time recommending it as much more than an ''in a pinch'' brew. This is a case where I applaud the brewery for the effort, but would have to take a pass on the product in the future.