Oatmeal Stout

I'm finally opening this bottle of St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout after it was mentioned by a fellow beer connoisseur. I originally picked up this bottle back in December and it's been sitting in my basement beer fridge for about nine months now. I enjoy Oatmeal Stouts quite a bit but, being summer, it didn't seem like a the best time to drink something quite this dark. That's been my excuse since at least March... Well, I've finally gotten around to opening it up and it seems like I've really been missing out.

Boulder Beer's lineup has been a bit of a gamble thus far... I found this bottle of Obovoid on sale the other day and decided I'd roll the dice one more time. The Obovoid is part of the Looking Glass series of special release beers Boulder Beer puts out on a seasonal basis. My experience so far has been that the Looking Glass beers are certainly bigger but not always better... The Obovoid hasn't really changed my opinion of the Looking Glass series.

I debated whether or not to include this as one of this year's Jingle Beers because there isn't anything terribly festive about an Oatmeal Stout that's been spiked with blueberries. Since Buffalo Bill's Brewery only releases this during the winter months I figured I'd go ahead and include it anyways. Oatmeal Stouts are great, hearty beers with thick textures and dark flavors... so I'm not sure exactly how the addition of tart blueberries would work here. When I was pouring this beer I just about forgot that what was so special about it. This beer looks like a plain stout, it's black with a thin off-white head. When I went in closer I could smell those blueberries rolling out of the pint glass.

For a beer as dark as this Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is really quite well balanced. Pouring this into a pint glass the first thing you'll notice is that this beer is pretty much pitch black. As the glass fills up you'll see the head go from a dark brown color to an off white creme color. You'd be forgiven if you expected this beer to be a bitter mess of chalky or burnt malted grain. Sam Smith's beers are usually a pleasantly mellow surprise, and this is no exception. Despite being darker than dark, this beer has a pretty mellow flavor profile. You will notice the bitter component stand out a bit, but that's just part of being a Stout. Looking past the bitterness you'll notice a faintly sweet caramel note and hints of dark chocolate. All in all, this is a pleasant dark beer. Definitely a Stout you can drink before the thermometer falls below sixty. This is worth picking up but it may bore the more adventurous dark beer drinkers.