Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

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

It pours black with a thin brown head that laced the glass nicely. To the nose it wasn’t the overpowering aroma that I was expecting. It did have hints of chocolate to the nose. When it first hits the tongue it is smooth and chocolatey. It finishes with a really dark roast coffee that is very pleasant. The 9.2% ABV isn’t noticeable and seems that it would sneek up very quickly. Overall...WOW! I would and will try this again. I can’t believe I haven’t tried this sooner.

Great chocolate stout! Big on dark chocolate and roasted coffee flavor. I would say its on par with the Imperial Russian Stout but lots more chocolate. The high alcohol is an added bonus but you wont notice it!

pours a rich deep brown/black with a lot of dark chocolate on the nose. nice roasted malt charicter with a bitter sweet chocolate finish. really decent

Bomber. Poured nicely-viscous deep brown with a rich tan head. The aroma picked up a hefty dose of baker’s chocolate with flaked oat and lactic sweetness around.. vanilla and coffee grounds as you stick your nose farther in.. earthy and spicy on the very back. The flavor found a blend of baker’s chocolate and sweeter, milkier chocolate at the core with intermittent cofee character.. moderate-to-high roast to it.. vanilla, char, and ashy smoke rode out the edges.. finished with chocolate bitterness and alcohol warmth. Heavier-bodied and a little bit slick on the palate with rising bitterness and warmth as it made its way through the mouth.. lasting, tasty impression on the finish. Solid, but not spectacular.

Poured a nice black creamy color.Notes of chocolate, vanilla and malts.Flavor was creamy and chocolatey with some nice roastiness.Finished off bitter sweet.

Bomber: had this in old ratings. Nice complex taste with chocolate and malt. Creamy texture and low carbination. Alcohol was not that noticble to me.

First tried on tap at the GABF 2008, the second I had it I knew I had to drink it again. Pours deep black with very nice tan head. Nose is very sweet and chocolaty for an imperial, almost smells like a sweet stout. Very balanced mouth feel with dark chocolate, malt, and sugars. Finish is smooth and malty, no alcohol whatsoever...I wish I could have purchased more than 3 bottles

this beer is stupid good. there’s no way around it. blacker than life before Jesus, with a cleveland browns ballcap to boot on a head. this thing smells like whoa. then it tastes like whoa. and then, when you go in again, more whoa. huge chocolate aroma and flavors. very dark, nearly burnt chocolate. my first impression was charred liquid fudge, but in a good way. the alcohol burn hit the back of the throat fairly hard in the first few sips, mellowed in the middle, then rears its hothead in any serious pause. yes, the alcohol bites here. but that’s okay. coffee and bleeding heart juice round out the edges making this as much of an afternoon treat as a midnight sleeping pill. i like it. my buddy here, in the flannel shirt, he likes it. we agree that, at times, the flavor is almost overpowering. while punching where it should punch and smoothing where it should smooth, sometimes it throws in a kick and belts me just below the tongue-belt. whoa. and wow. i said to my buddy josh here, just now and meaning it, "this is one of the more intense drinking experiences i’ve had." and it was. and it is. for about two more sips.