352. Avery Black Tot

The third beer from Avery’s Barrel-Aged Series; we previously sampled Brabant Barrel-Aged Wild Ale, but missed Sui Generis—but pretty much everyone missed that one. We do need to score a bottle or two of Dépuceleuse to stock away for a rainy day. Previously, we’ve tried Seventeen Dry-Hopped Black Lager, Anniversary Ale Ten (2003), Brabant Barrel-Aged Wild Ale, Ellie’s Brown Ale, 16th Anniversary Ale and duganA IPA. from Avery, making this our seventh beer from Boulder, CO—or at least the seventh beer from this brewery in Boulder, CO. I know, I know, the details...

Black Tot pours an inky dark chocolate; it has orange highlights and a burnt tan head that reduces to a ring after two or three minutes. The nose is an interesting mix of creaminess, dark rich malt, cane sugar, burnt sugar, molasses, tannic oakiness, and low levels of rum sweetness (but not alcohol). The oak contributes to the creamy and tannic aromas, and the parts are more distinct than married together. Flavors begin with a good amount of sweetness—cane and burnt sugar flavors, molasses, and rich malt sweetness—before transitioning to a tannic middle that is sharp and even almost tart; the oak tastes young and bright and some slight roasted malt peeks through as well. The finish still contains a good amount of lingering oak tannins, and a return of the rum sweetness with some rum alcohol flavors to round things out. The body is medium; the bright oak makes it feel thinner than it is on the mouth, and the carbonation almost disappears in relation to the sharpness of wood and alcohol. There is bite and puckering from both oak tannins and the alcohol at the end. Black Tot is sharp and very young tasting—this beer needs some time to mellow and allow the flavors to marry before we’ll even have a sense of what this beer could end up tasting like. I’d say that we opened this at least a year too early, if not more.

From the bottle: “Experimentation. Ales and lagers that defy styles or categories. This is what we are about: our driving force, our passion. To further facilitate this innovative spirit, we’ve developed our Barrel-Aged Series where anything, and we mean ANYTHING, goes! Brewed for those as adventurous as we are! No. 3. Swabbies, what could be better than yer daily rats o’ thick, chewy, and robust Imperial Oatmeal Stout? What say you, mateys? Aye, throw in yer beloved empty rum barrel for aging! To our sweethearts and wives, may they never meet! Huzzah!”

Um, do pirates actually think about aging beer? I didn’t think so...

ABV: 10.08%
Bottled: 1/13/2010
Production: 315 cases

(6/17/10)

283. McAuslan St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout

This is our first beer from McAuslan Brewing, which is located in Montréal, Canada. We had this on tap at South Park Tavern out of the nitro tap; we also had this after the DRAFT meeting, so our notes are minimal and a bit scatter-shot. I know you’ll forgive us, because you’re indulgent like that. Plus, there’s little recourse at this juncture—just know we drank our beer for the day.

St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout pours a dark chocolate color with a thick creamy head and starts with a sweet roasted malt nose. The beer is pretty much roasty front to back; there is more richness and sweetness in the front, and the end is smooth and soft, although still with the lingering roasty flavors. St-Ambroise has a soft mouthfeel and a lower carbonation level, although it is still very creamy. While it is a good beer, there wasn’t as much variety or complexity of flavor as we anticipated; this is probably the result or one of two things: either this beer is not that complex or nuanced, or our palates are pretty much wrecked from our earlier escapades. We’ll leave it as an open question for our readers to determine.

From the McAuslan website: “At the World Beer Championship in 1994, St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout received the second highest rating of the over 200 beers in the competition and it won one of only nine platinum medals awarded. Brewed from 40 percent dark malts and roasted barley, this intensely black ale carries strong hints of espresso and chocolate. Oatmeal contributes body and a long-lasting mocha-colored head to this well-hopped beer.”

ABV: 5.0%

(4/9/2010)

172a. Stoudts Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout

So since the holiday season is upon us, I’ve bolted for the relative warmth of the Pacific Northwest, abandoning Elli to the cold of Dayton. This also means that we’re gonna have a little over a week of separate beer drinking. Elli’s choice to celebrate our separation was to pull out the Stoudts. This is our fifth Stoudts beer (well, not for me)—previously we’ve had Oktoberfest, American Pale Ale, Scarlet Lady ESB, and Heifer-in-Wheat.

Fat Dog is, according to the bottle, a bottle conditioned Imperial Oatmeal Stout. The nose is a combination of dark roasted and caramel aromas with toffee and vanilla rounding it out. Pouring a deep, dark brown, Fat Dog is clear despite the bottle conditioning with a creamy tan head. The beer starts creamy and sweet, then moves into roasted and chocolate flavors; there are no coffee or burnt malt flavors apparent, leaving the beer very smooth. Fat Dog is fairly dry overall; while there is some sweetness in the front, it finishes dry and bitter with a touch of hoppiness and spiciness at the end. Silky smooth, rich mouthfeel with a medium to heavy body and good carbonation that lingers and laces the glass heavily. As the beer warms, more alcohol is evident is the flavor and mouthfeel, as well as some nuttiness. Elli is not certain about this being bottle-conditioned (although the website says so as well)—besides being very clear, there was no yeast at the bottom of the bottle. Overall, Fat Dog is a smooth, rounded,and delicious beer—with the nutty and roasted flavors, it’s a very well-balanced and drinkable big beer.

From the Stoudts website: “This unique ale merges the smooth and complex richness of an Oatmeal Stout with the assertive hoppiness of Imperial Stout. Fat Dog has an inviting silky-black color, a prominent roasted malt character, and a chocolatey, coffee-like finish. For a special treat we aged a small batch of this beer in bourbon barrels and corked finished in our old style 750ml. bottle and kegged a small quantity as well. It was pretty sweet while it lasted, we just might have to do it again.”

ABV: 9.0%
IBU: 55

(12/19/2009)

163. Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout

This is our second beer from Dark Horse Brewery; like the last one, Crooked Tree IPA, we had this on tap @ South Park Tavern.

Pouring a deep brownish black, One has a tan head that quickly dissipates to a ring; the nose is burnt cindery and roasted malt with some chocolate hints. One starts with chocolate and burnt malt accompanied by dry biscuit malt flavors; the middle has an upswing of sweetness and a good dose of roasted malt flavor, finishing dry with bitterness that is more a product of malt than hops and some light chalkiness. Medium bodied, One has a creamy mouthfeel, but also some harsher cinder notes across the profile; the low to medium carbonation and dryness accentuate the cinder mouthfeel components a bit. An enjoyable beer; it is not the most oatmeal-y oatmeal stout that has come our way. It could use a bit more roundedness and less harshness from the roasted barley to allow the flavor profile and mouthfeel to be more rounded—there are lots o’ cindery bits in this beer. At the same time, One is a very tasty beer.

From the Dark Horse website: “Number one in a series of five stouts produced to help ease you through the cold and grey midwestern winters. This beer is full bodied with hints of chocolate, roasted barley, coffee flavors and a nice creamy head.”

ABV: 8.0%

Um....yer artwerk is showin’...

(12/10/2009)