Breckenridge Vanilla Porter with Pistachios (6/10)

Breckenridge Brewery of Denver, Colorado, produced this vanilla Porter brewed with pistachios.  It was on tap at The Daily Growler in Upper Arlington a while ago, and Beer Advocate says it's retired now.  If it comes back, you may find it on Beer Menus.

It pours a clear, very dark mahogany color with thin white head that lasts a while.

The aroma is malty, slightly chocolatey, but doesn't hint at pistachio.

The pistachios don't add the flavor you'd expect.  I thought there would be a definite nutty element to the beer, but instead detected more of a woody, barrel-aged kind of flavor.  It seemed more like a barrel aged brown ale than a porter.  I liked it, but didn't particularly love it.  The pistachios seemed to cancel out the vanilla and some of the porter flavor as well.

I'm rating this one a 6 out of 10.  Rate Beer had nothing on this one, and Beer Advocate doesn't have enough reviews to give a score.  Most of the scores they had were in the 3.55 to 4.62 out of 5 range, which would equate to about an 8.3 out of 10 on my scale.  I guess they enjoyed it more than I did.