Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout

I've mentioned Sam Smith's brewery before, with both the Winter Welcome and the Taddy Porter.  Both were excellent brews, and live up to the strong reputation of the Samuel Smith brewery.  Needless to say I was excited to try the Oatmeal Stout that Dan picked up a while back.  I had mixed feelings about the concept of an oatmeal stout, as I generally don't like oatmeal.  I think it ranks pretty close to the top of the list of disgusting looking breakfast foods that I don't know why anyone would eat.  Still, when it comes to beer, I'll try just about anything, if for no other reason than to say I've had it.

The initial smell of the beer was strongly of oatmeal, chocolate, and raisins.  It has a nice roasty malt base underneath that brought the whole thing together.  Overall the smell was moderately strong... not overpowering, but definitely not something you need to stick your nose in just to get a whiff of.  It actually is a very pleasant smelling beer, and the various components go together perfectly.

 

The beer poured a very dark brown, almost black in color.  It had a nice foamy tanish brown head that was roughly 2 fingers thick.  The head dissipated slowly to a millimeter thick coating, just floating about on the top like sea foam. What head remained left a nice lacing that stuck around for a while.

 

The taste had a nice roasted malt quality, but was not overly sweet.  It more left the impression of roastedness, without the normal sweetness that would be associated with a strongly malty beer.  There was also a dominant oatmeal, and very light raisin taste.   There was a creamy quality to the flavor as well.  The back of the mouth had a slightly more burnt oat taste.  In all, it's very much a mild flavor, neither sweet or bitter.  It's not the most robust flavor ever, but very balanced, smooth, and clean.  It had a nice roasted/burnt aftertaste as well.  Overall, it's a nice earthy flavor combination.

 

In the mouth, the beer had both a moderate carbonation level, and a medium body.  It was a little dry, but still somehow seemed refreshing.  It really is VERY creamy in the mouth.  The only remotely comparible experience I've had is Guinness on a tap right after it's poured.  Still that analogy doesn't seem to do it justice, as it really imparts the experience of eating breakfast.  It's a very substantial feeling.

 

Overall, the beer was just insanely drinkable.  This was one of the easiest things to get down ever.  You can just take mouthfuls of it at a time.  I don't think I could get tired of this, and I really could see myself drinking this one with breakfast if I ever felt the urge.

- Adam