Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Formerly brewed at Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial Stout
Escondido, California USA

Pours a dark black color with a thick tan head that floated nicely on top of the liquid beer. the nose was extremely robust and full of chocolate malt and roasted barley. You can smell the floral resin hops nicely. As you sip on it there is intense chocolate and coffee that hit your palate and stick to the sides of your mouth. There is some smokey oak flavor but it is very minute. The roasted barley is very overpowering. Overall it has a great appearance, carbonation, and balanced flavor.

Totally black pour, lots of thick creamy head...great bitterness from the roasted chocholate malts and coffee undertones...great mouthfeel

Man, it sure does look just right, colorwise. Totally jet-black, no light can pierce it, liquid. Quite minimal head with minimal retention and minimal lacing, to match. This hurts it, scorewise. Smell of big dark chocolate and big roasted malts. Hints of smoke, leather and vanilla. Big espresso presence. Light dark fruit notes. Huge roasted malts and toasted oatmeal. Dark, dark chocolate, like 80 or 85% dark. Hints of vanilla and dark cherries. Notes of espresso flavor mixed with brown sugar/molasses. Medium to full body. Nice and thick, though I think it could stand to be a little bit thicker. Verging on being oily, though, and that’s good. The 9.2% abv gives a very pleasant warming effect. As much as I love this one, it would probably be abit overwelming to drink on a regular basis. As an anniversary beer, though, it serves it’s purpose excellently. Just tasty enough to leave you wanting more, but knowing that you probably couldn’t handle too much more, even if it were still around.

Pours pitch black and completely opaque with a 2 finger frothy chocolate/coffee-colored head that slowly settles into a lasting cap that leaves chunks of lacing behind. Bitter dark chocolate aroma with lots of roasted/toasted malt notes, oatmeal, roasted coffee bean and candy sugar. There is a lot going on here and hopefully the flavor lives up to the aroma. Deep roasted full body with lots of sweet bitter dark chocolate, roasted coffee bean, oatmeal, burnt toast and toffee. All of this dark roasty character is nicely balanced by the sweetness of the dark chocolate and a bit of candy sugar. There is also a slight dark fruit presence and a subtle nut character. Very well balanced with well masked alcohol make this complex beer pretty drinkable. Recommended!

Bottle/22 - Pours a very dark, oily black in color with a small dark tan head that quickly faded to a very thin covering over the beer. Aroma is very heavy with dark roasted malts, smoky malts, dark chocolate and some alcohol. Flavor is quite bitter, very strong of dark chocolate and espresso. Very thick and chewy... few beers have this palate! Some alcohol in the profile, but not overwhelming. Awesome Brew!

Bottle. Rich, slightly smoky bitter dark chocolate. Some dry oak-like character. Oily, viscuous dark brown with a big foamy light brown head that leaves thin splotchy lacing. Dark chocolate dominates up front Finish is burnt toast char, dry and bitter. Slightly foamy, creamy, full bodied with a slight warming bite.

@Freaktoberfest from bottle, pours brown with a chocolate color head, aroma of coffee, chocolate and nuts, flavors of dark chocolate, coffee, cherry liquor, caramel and soy sauce, nice bitter aftertaste, smooth texture, full and complex body. Great Beer

Drank it with the Castas during the Mexico - El Salvador. Heavy bodied, thick mouth feel, great taste of dark chocolate, heavy on the alcohol nice warm feeling. Too bad we lost!!