Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout

Brewed by Samuel Smith
Style: Stout
Tadcaster, England

A nice black pour with minimal off white head. Aroma dominates by chocolate, coffee, and roasted malts. Flavor brings out the dark toasty chocolates. Overall a real nice brew.

Bottle. Pours a clear ruby hued brown with a thin tan head. Sweet caramel and roast aromas. Medium bodied, sweet and with some caramel and plum flavors. Light malt on the finish.

Pours almost jet black with a few fingers of tan slowly dissipating head. Oats and chocolate in the aroma. It’s a tasty stout, nice and thick, with a little bitter aftertaste of sour milk and chocolate, and some yeasty bread notes throughout. Refreshing and a pretty good stout.

550 mL Bottle. Deep black-brown body with a beige foamy-frothy head that settles to a tenacious ring that just wants to cling all over the glass. Aroma of toasted malt, a subtle but sharp combination of ripe banana and pineapple, innuendos of raisins and prunes, and an astringent floral undertone. Dark and toasted malts and a blast of caramel on the tongue; just a bit sweet for my liking but no points deductions here. The flavor is heavenly nonetheless. Some cocoa in the aftertaste with the sweet dark malts. Sweet malts linger in the finish. If I was the one making this beer, I’d just cut the sweetness a bit. Otherwise this is some good stout.

bottle: pitch black with no head. Arouma of chocolate, caramel and oats. Creamy mouthfeel. Chocolate, roast and prunes. Finishes dry and bitter.

12 oz. bottle, the third from a four-pack. Roasted, tart, woody, fruity smell. Very much an ale in the aroma. Scents of rich chocolate, cotton candy, and brown sugar. Pours a clear dark brown with an amber hue and a large amount of thick, uneven, taupe head. Produces good lacing. Roasted cofee dominates the taste at first, but sweet fruit comes to take over. Tart, lemony flavor. An unfortunate but weak hint of metal is present. Carob, cantalope, and yellow plum elements. Dry, bitter aftertaste. Light to medium body. Soft and smooth in the palate, as an oatmeal ale should be. The palate would score more strongly if it were not lighter than ideal. Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout is an entertaining, likable, and thoroughly English brew.

Another bottle I picked up from Bacchanalia in Cambridge. This one pours black with rub tints and a big, tan head that sticks around a while. Coffee with chocolate and hints of hops as well as some dried fruit on the nose. A dark coffee malt flavor with a smooth follow through and hints of chocolate. Some hoppiness in the end with a lingering coffee taste, this beer becomes more complex as it warms...

Black with a foamy tan head. Stewed fruits, coffee and caramel nose. Has the usual luscious oat texture. Chocolate sweetness, with some roastiness and a finish that has just enough hops to avoid sickliness. I drank this with barely a chill on it and wished it were cooler. Half way down the bottle I fetched some Red Leicester to eat with it. That worked well, and I think the sweetness would have been too much for me without it. I really don’t understand how this is rated similarly to their Imperial Stout or to St Ambroise Oatmeal stout.