Oat (Imperial Oatmeal Stout)
Bottle from Beer Run in Charlottesville, VA. Poured into a 22 oz. Terrapin snifter. Appearance: Pours - or rather, I should say, plunges - out of the bottle a thick, deep, near black. It's about halfway into the bottle now - I'm a little worried, though, because there's zilch head. I increase the angle of the bottle, the aggressiveness of a pour ... ah! There it is. Slowly, lazy, fine, pinprick bubbles fall upwards through the morass and form a slight, one-finger foamy chocolate head. It lingers around for quite some time, and after it fades (and I begin to drink), there's a nice amount of fine, spidery, sheet-like lacing. Aroma: Rich and mellow. Sweet, milky chocolate, light grassy coffee, and a few hints of well-masked alcohol are all present, but the strong note is a wholesome, toasty malt notes - well-roasted oat bran toast, really. I wish I could describe the smell as "well-toasted toast," but that would just be preposterous, no? There are a few dark fruits that meld with the heavy alcohols to give your traditional "rum raisin" note, but still, really all about the toasty, earthy malts. Taste: Chocolate-covered raisins, light anise, and a smooth, mellow, and warming alcohol are all present, but just as in the nose, the majority of the taste is comprised of strong, heavily roasted, and wholesome malts. Not too sweet, not too dry - just very earthy, and very well-balanced. Mouthfeel: Incredibly thick and syrupy, chewy, big-bodied, with minimal carbonation, but it's terribly smooth, milky, creamy, and even. Very nice. Only drawback is that, perhaps, it's a bit TOO full-bodied. Drinkability: It's really hard to give a 12.5% abv beer anything much higher than a 4.0, so this is actually pretty good. Another great one from Southern Tier, which is fast becoming one of those breweries that can't really seem to do too much wrong. There's a lot of "oat" in this oatmeal stout, and a lot of other big, bold flavors, which is precisely what you want from an Imperial Oatmeal Stout. This one therefore benefits from being not only spot-on in terms of expected style, but tasty in its own right. Recommended.