Mendocino Winter Ale (06/07 - Oatmeal Stout)

Formerly brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Sweet Stout
Saratoga Springs, New York USA

Thick viscous pour with big tan head. Slight lacing. Roasted malt aroma. Big chocolately backbone with hints of oats and coffee.

Now this is a good oatmeal stout. Pour was a deep dark brown with a one finger tan head. Aroma was strong. Chocolate, sugar and cream abound. Taste was a little wierd but good. The carbonation was so strong that it seemed to be separate from the taste. I tasted carbonation first, then the intense sweet chocolate and creamy flavor with roasted malt and coffee in the aftertaste. It’s rare a sweet stout has this much carbonation and I liked it.

Thanks bmartin. Pours a really dark stout with a medium chestnut brown head. Nice roasty aroma, sweet, coffee, molasses, brown sugar, chocolate. Nice aroma. The flavor is smooth, milk chocolate, coffee, java, nice flavor. Smooth mouth feel and a roasty finish.

The pour was very dark. The color was dark brown/black. The head was creamy, medium tan, and thin. The aroma was soy sauce, roast, sweet malt, and coffee. The flavor was coffee, roast, chocolate, and sory sauece. The palate was not very carbonated, but smooth. The finish was warm and roasty.

Poured from the bottle to a jet black, with medium thick tan head that hung around awhile, but then dissipated fairly quickly to leave little lacing. Aroma was anice strong mix of chocolate and toffee with coffee undertones. Mouthfeel was a bit on the thin side, but the flavor followed the nose exactly, leaving a nice sweet, somewhat warming finish, as the 7% abv began to make itself known. A good offering by Mendocino.

Appearance: Pours a black body with a dense, lush tan-colored head (a shame it had to fizzly out so quickly). Smell: Aroma of creamy, semi-sweet chocolate, sugar cookie dough, and heavily roasted grains. Taste: A nice blend of dark chocolate and roasty coffee overtones. Hints of licorice. Faint flowery hops appear on the dusty, dry finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, but quite smooth on the palate. Mild carbonation. Drinkability: It was a fine winter seasonal when it was originally released last year, and, to me, is one of Mendocino’s better beers.

Ebony body reveals hues of deep brown at the edges. Tight cappuccino-like froth slowly disperses but retains quite well and deposits some lace. Enticing nose features black licorice, soy sauce, oats, and black currants. Hint of molasses and metallic (iron) malt. Fuzzy carbonation, but burly in body. Snappy roast bristles with a potting-soil earthiness as well as an oily espresso-bean undertow which carries substantial weight. Captivatingly rich from the get-go. Sizeable malt frame generates additional notes of charcoal and mocha chocolate. Excellent malt depth. Assertive smokiness accentuates the resounding tar- and black-fudge-drenched roasted richness. Body is somewhat tacky due to the slight yeastiness, but the mammoth maltiness is able to withstand it. Malt-derived acids complement the rich java and burnt toffee flavors, as well as the berrylike esters. Finishes oily and fairly slick, yet extraordinarily deep with bittersweet truffles fused with a forceful roasted bitterness. Oily java and smoke linger for what seems like an eternity. Comess across as a low-gravity Imperial Stout - very brutish! Pretty good.

Bottle: Never would I thought I would say this, but for a Mendocino Stout, this one is quite dark... literally pitch black.   Head is large and foamy, of a light brown color.   Head collapses slowly, leaving an abundance of lacing.   Odd nose, somewhat of an Imperial Stout crossed with a Scotch or Scottish Ale.   Has a slight soy tinge, roasted malts, some wet sock and sweat, but also quite a bit of campfire or charred wood.   Odd character for an Oatmeal Stout.   Also seems a bit musty.   I would say that overall the wet sock and campfire win out.   Smoked roasitness dominates on the tongue.   A little bit of ash and charred wood as well.   The roasted malt aspect takes a back seat.   Sweet, but not as sweet as you would think.   I thought I would associate more of a sweet lactose like base, but this one is slightly soyish, moreso like an Imperial Stout.   Imperial Oatmeal Stout Perhaps?   Body and mouthfeel are fairly moderate.   Noticing a bit of a hop presense on the finish.   Remains roasty, but moreso in the realm of charred wood and soy.   Maybe thats age taking its toll?   Six or seven months since its release might do that ey?   Thanks to Jah Noth for providing me this one!   I can say that my collection of Mendocino Winter Ales is complete, at least until next November.   This one was fairly good, and certainly more Impish than I would have thought.