Dominion Oak Barrel Stout

Brewed by Coastal Brewing Company
Style: Stout
Annapolis, Maryland USA

The aroma is almost prototypical for the style. It has coffee, chocolate, burnt malt, and a hint of vanilla. The appearance is dark brown with a larger than average head for a stout. The flavor is like the aroma. The palate is a tad thin but OK. Overall it’s a decent stout.

Pint glass Stale smokey aroma with hints of vanilla. Slim tan foam. Tastes of oak chips with undertones of extract vanilla. Bitey palate with green oak and hops on the aftertaste.

12oz bottle, bottled 07.09.08. Pours dark brown, topped with a small brown head that disappears fairly rapidly. Vanilla highlights the aroma, along with prune, raisin, and wood. Flavor is fairly sweet, with caramel, vanilla and wood. Very thin bodied. Finishes with roasted malt and vanilla.

The pour was expectedly dark brown with an off-white or tan head that produced flecks of lacing. The aroma was coffee and chocolate with some light roasty malt and wood. The flavor was a pretty straightforward, lightly roasted malts with faint coffee and chocolate and a sweetness we will attribute to the vanilla. Average mouthfeel, slightly sour or metallic twang on the finish.

This brewery is only a few miles from where I lay my head. We must all stay true to our local brewery. Unfortunately for me it is hard... Anheuser Busch purchased this brewery and made several changes, one of those changes was to the Oak Barrel Stout. BUT.. This is still a damn good beer but NOT as good as it used to be on tap. It truly is a rich creamy dark stout, with slight hints of coffee, chocolate and vanilla.

Bottle: Thanks Immy! Dark brown pour with a finger of short-lived fizzy brown head. Nose is roasty with mild coffee. Light malty sweetness. Tastes of heavy roast and light cocoa into a more sweet and chocolatey finish. Very faint ba notes. Vanilla I suppose... Malty, roasty, and chocolate with a dry and roasty finish.

Off-brown head color. The beer seems to be somewhat of a thick palate. The head lasts a long time. The beer has a nice black color to it. Very black! The head doesn’t have that deep dark chocolate head that I look for in a stout. Looks decent, and in no way am I saying that this beer looks bad. This beer is quite different from a lot of stouts in regard to its aroma. The smell of vanilla is definitely there! I was surprised by this. Sometimes when brewers make the point of saying that a certain flavor or aroma is in the beer I usually can’t smell or taste a damn thing. With this, I definitely smell the vanilla. I get that oak roast or ash smell. I won’t say that I smell any heavy chocolate. I do smell a slight coffee aroma. This beer has a decent aroma, not quite pungent, but not faint either. Flavor has a nice roast taste to it. I think the oak aging helped this beer a lot in that regard. Slight vanilla taste. The vanilla is more present in the aroma than in the flavor. The coffee flavor comes out as well. I taste the ash flavor mostly, which is what I prefer in a stout. I like the bitter coffee flavor. The chocolate flavor is not in this beer. I don’t mind stouts not having chocolate flavors, so that doesn’t bother me. The beer is not as creamy as it should be. The beer didn’t look thick as I was pouring it, only semi thick, so I am not surprised by this. Overall, a decent stout with an aroma that has many different elements to it. The flavor of the beer is a bit week, and the beer is a bit too thin. A decent stout, but nothing that I would buy again. It is not bad just not something you need to run out and buy! Try it once and you will be satisfied!

Interesting bottle of beer. Dark brown pour, with a fluffy tan head. Aroma hits you with chocolate, coffee and lots of vanilla. Flavor is pretty nice...vanilla is evident, wood notes and some chocolate. But the beer lacks body. It is way too thin...too bad this could have been a real start.