Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Stout
Tadcaster, England

Bottle. Black color with a big beige haed. Aroma of a slight roastiness and some sweetness, but not much there. What this beer is is very smooth. There’s a slight sourness at first, but it gives way to a big milk chocolate flavor with some roastiness, and a sweet creamy smoothness. Nice creamy mouthfeel. Balanced oatmeal flavor (unlike most oatmeal stouts). It doesn’t overpower, but there’s a lingering oatmeal-ness at the end.

Pours a black color with brown highlights, the light brown heads is thick at first but diminishes to a thin line of foam that sticks nicely to the glass. The chocolate is dominant in the aroma, there’s also faint roasty notes. The flavor has chocolate, oats, roasted malt and sugar, it’s more sweet than roasty, it finishes sweet but when the beer warms up the finish is more and more bitter . The body has a medium thickness with a velvety mouthfeel, the carbonation is low. It’s nice to revisit old classics once in a while, it’s still the solid oatmeal stout I fell in love with years ago.

Aroma is meaty, smoked and fruity (apple) resulting in a cider/sherry/whiskey-like smell. Back coloured with a red glow and an offwhite head. Bacon taste, sweet, malts and apples. Bit sour in the end. Very interesting brew, but I can't say I really love its taste.

Pours with a big, rocky, light brown head covering a black body. Sweeet honey and chocolate malt aroma with some oatmeel too. Sweet, grainey taste with chocolate. Syrupy mouthfeel.

Rerate 1/30/03: While I still thoroughly enjoy this beer, I need to adjust the rating down a little, as I have tried a couple dozen Stouts since this one that have been better. 4/19/02 (4.6): Wow, what a great beer. Somebody had to tell me the bottle was colorless before I realized that was the color of the beer! Sweet aroma and coffee undertones make this a new favorite of mine. If only it were more readily available! Perfectly smooth and drinkable.

Coffee with brown sugar aroma, a hint of chocolate. Incredibly dark, almost purple, with a huge cappuccino head. The head looks like pancake batter, with assorted sized bubbles bursting on top, some lace. Great coffee flavour, strong roasted bitterness. Has a rich full silky texture, and a fabulous liquorice aftertaste. A Wonderful Sweet Stout!

550ml bottle - very attractive bottle design. Ruby black in colour with red-brownish, frothy foam. Marked aroma of dark fruits. Flavour of dark berries - plums and grapes - with supporting components of roasted malts and coffeebeans. Dry palate. Almost full bodied (Cittie of Yorke, Holborn 20.09.2006)

This is a really solid stout, one of the smoothest and best malt profiles I can remember. For only being 5% the weight on the palate and malt depth is very impressive. Soft burnt characters, dark chocolate, that oatmeal smoothness you get. Subtle dark cherry comes through as it warms.