Magic Hat Ravell

 Had an opportunity to pick up the winter seasonal variety pack from Magic Hat called "Winterland". The pack contains three bottles each of four different Magic Hat selections. Included in this pack are: "Howl" a Black Lager, "Encore" a Wheat IPA, "Ravell" a Vanilla Porter and their flagship "#9" an English Style Pale Ale. For this tasting I'll talk a bit about Ravell, which is a done in the traditional English Porter fashion and an "Oliver Twist" thrown in with the use of whole Vanilla Bean.  The beer pours a deep dark brown, almost black as most Porters do, with a bone off white color head. Retention was rich and frothy, but quickly dissipating. The aroma was very much of roasted malt and vanilla. The roasted malt carried on through to the taste and became very chocolatey. This is likely from the use of Pale, Crystal and Chocolate malts. It's at this point that I lost the Vanilla aspect of the beer, which was a bit of a let down. Although tasty,  it would have been nice for the Vanilla to have carried through. I should fess though, I have a strong bias toward Breckenridge Brewery's Vanilla Porter, which is on my five star list. As is with most Porters you shouldn't expect much in the way of hop character, but it should be noted that Magic Hat list this beer as using only Apollo hops. Which would technically make it a "single hop" beer. With an ABV of 5.8% Ravel is quite sessionable. And while there is still a chill in the air, it's also a nice beer to enjoy until the temperatures begin to warm. Just a reminder, Winterland is a winter seasonal variety pack, so it may not be long for the shelves at your favorite beer merchant. Cheers!

For more information on Ravell visit: Magic Hat Brewing Co.