Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

22oz. bomber: This one pours an inky, very opaque dark brown. There was just a wisp of a brown head on it, and that was gone almost immediately. Complex aroma. Chocolate stands out, but not overpowering. Some roastiness and woodiness in there. Hint of some fruits, possibly cherries. Somewhat heavy, slick feel on your tongue. A complex taste also. Chocolate, roasted malt, coffee, bitterness. This is very nice.

Courtesy of After4ever, thanks Tom! It is pitch black with a nougat colored, creamy head. The aroma has notes of roasted malt, ash, chocolate, light smoke, wood and it is funny, but I can smell the bitterness. The flavour has a roasted and hoppy bitterness, notes of roasted malt, wood, bitter chocolate, light sweetness and coffee and a hint of ashes. It is at the same time both very bitter and yet smooth, complex and yet straight forward, and interesting mix.

Bottle. Clean chocolate and roasted malt aroma. Black body, small brown head. Flavor is powerfully rich dark chocolate and roasted malts. Also some ripe fruit and alcohol. Sweet finish. Delicious.

This beer pours perfect. I mean, the color, the head, the consistancey, it is all perfect. The smell here has good notes of chocolate and oatmeal. The taste is thick and interesting. Its just a tad lacking, leaving this beer to taste like eating Hersheys Special Dark Chocolate powder. This beer coats the tougne well, but the taste is over-powering. Im really impressed with the idea here and think this is a good beer. I did expect a lot more from it though.

Black pour with a tan head. Very heavy almost like a meal in a bottle. Nice bitter chocolate aroma. Very nice flavor. Extremely silky smooth.

Bottle. Pours a good black color with a fairly good tan head. A good coco to the nose and roasted malt. Flavors are real good with the chocolate Wonderful oat flavors too. Pretty creamy mouth. Very relaxing beer for a wind down to a busy day. I wish I picked up more to age. I willl have to keep my eyes out. Resampled (12-31-08). Growler from Stone. Pours a midnight creamy black with a towering thick dark dark cream head. Same roasted malts and coco nose. Also a subtle hop note on the nose. Roasted coffee, dark chocolate flavors. Mouth is creamy with a bitter dry finish. Alcohol is a bit much as it pulls away from the rest of the flavors.

22oz bottle. This is one black beer! Nice semi-sweet chocolate in the aroma with a nice infusion of roasted grain. Very full aroma. I was worried that this would be too sweet and overly heavy based on the aroma but I was pleasantly surprised. Semi-sweet chocolate is well integrated with roasted grains and creamy milky note. Nothing is overpowering and everything is very well matched together. Creamy mouth feel that is very round. A great job on this one.

nose of oats and general sweetness, no sign of 9%+. flavor delivers little in terms of typical oatmeal stout flavor and huge bitterness, but without any real hop character. just generalized puckering bitterness. as it begins to breathe nose develops notes of the same bitterness which begin to overwhelm the oats and all else in its wake. flavor begins to present a burnt note, oats are gone now and sucked into black hole of hops. did you ever try to make chocolate milk from pure unsweetened baking cocoa when you were a kid? its kind of like that.