Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Sweet Stout
Marshall, Michigan USA

Small serving during 11-30-07 tasting at the Lex-Larp Cellars as I joined joet and the Twin Cities crew. Poured from a 12 oz. bottle. Coffee dominates the aroma. Pours a dark brown with a sable-colored head. Unimpressive, simplistic flavors of coffee and an underlying sweet cream. Medium body. Lively in the palate. Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout did not impress me at all. Normally I write long reviews, but I simply don’t have much to say about this uninspiring beer.

This is a good beer, but I have to tell you I had trouble getting a good aroma out of it. Unfortunately because of that, the score slightly suffers. Smooth palate, a good upper tier oatmeal stout, based on flavor. Sampled at a Cellars tasting in St. Paul.

Pours jet black with a small, creamy, mocha head. The nose is a mild blend of dark roasted malt, light coffee and cream, oats and faint chocolate covered raisins. Medium-bodied and silky on the tongue with fairly aggressive yet soft carbonation and a roasted, hoppy, bitter finish. The flavor follows the nose with the roasted malt dominating the lesser notes of coffee, raisin and light chocolate. This one is essentially an "impy-light": the complex, roasty flavors of an impy with the drinkability of a sweet stout. I like this one quite a bit.

12oz bottle.
Pours a dark brown/black with mahogany highlights and long-lasting khaki head. Aroma is complex layers of chocolate, earthy roasted grain, a touch of toffee, and slightly piney hops. Flavor is earthy, gravelly, grainy with bitter roast. Coffee notes linger in the aftertaste. Full-bodied mouthfeel and thick creamy palate with long, roast-bitter aftertaste. A straight-laced yet rather well-done stout.

bottle. thanks joebrew. midnight black with thn beautiful tan/red head. smoky, coffee, oat, chocolate, roasted aroma. smooth and balanced. sour mash, oats, coffee. subtle sweetness. very enjoyable.

Coffee and roasted malt flavor. Black color. Sour in taste rather than sweet like some Sweet Stouts.

12oz Bottle $7.40 4-Pack Dark Horse Dark Horse’s Oatmeal Stout gurgles from the bottle to the glass.Yes, the body is thick and solid black. Not one glimmer of light escapes. A one plus finger brown head formed on the pour and fell rather quickly to a skimming with tight edges. As good as the body looks if the head stuck around longer it would be a knockout. Smell is good but a little faint. Roasted, slightly charred, barley is the base and main ingredient in the mix. There’s creaminess coming through and oddly enough I’m picking up some butterscotch every now and then. There’s hints of dark coffee grounds as well. Aroma is in step with the flavor. Big roastiness up front fades mid palate but is always there and in charge. Coffee grounds and lactic creaminess mid-palate leads through to the finish. Theres a nice solid pine hop presence on the swallow. Good stout. The body of this beer is exceptional. Tremendously smooth with a heavy though velvety body. Carbonation is on the low end of the spectrum allowing this beer to glide along the palate. This stout goes down very easily and it’s very easy to put away a few in a sitting. Last year I got my hands on Tres stout (blueberry). This is my first sampling of the oatmeal and it is damn fine. From my expierences Dark Horse makes some tasty stouts and I hope they keep them coming. 11/11/07

Pours a brown tinted black with almost no head. The aroma is characteristically roasty with notes of grapes, dark chocolate, and oak. The flavor is dominated by the roastiness, but there are other elements at work here, as well. There are also notes of raspberry, milk chocolate, wheat, cinnamon, and a mild, mild saltiness. Very rich and complex. The best part about the whole beer is the mouthfeel. It’s like drinking heavy cream. So silky and smooth on the tongue. It’s almost worth it to just sip and keep it sitting in your mouth just to experience the decadance. Very, very nice stout.