Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

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

A little bit of a light chocolate aroma. Very black, dark head. First taste has some chocolate to it, but then the alcohol starts to dominate too much. Definitely bitter, just a bit too strong with the alcohol flavoring.

Deep pitch black coloured body with a strong brown head. Aroma of molasses, malt, coffee, whiskey, oak and a bunch of vanilla and a bit of tobacco. Medium-bocdied; Strong assertive roasted malt and chocolate coupled with some sour pungent lactic flavours and sweet sugars. Aftertaste strong and potent - not complex at all and fairly one-dimensional. Overall, a decent beer - better than most of Stone’s sub-par offerings. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Merchant’s in Dearborn, Michigan on 03-August-2008, sampled on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on 02-July-2009.

Bottle via Hogtownharry - thanks, Harry! Pours deep brown-black with a finger of dark tan head. Aroma and flavour of deeply roasted malt, dark bitter chocolate, and slightly burnt espresso beans. Soft, creamy body. Finish is nice and dry with a great bitterness and very little alcohol heat. This is fantastic stuff that went damn well with a few squares of 85% dark chocolate.

Bomber: Pours black. No ruby edging, just black, with a medium sized fluffy tan head, huge chocolate, grain and coffee nose, starts bitter and ends more bitter. Oily, slick mouthfeel, mild carbonation, thick bodied. Alcohol is well hidden.

22 oz bottle, via Stateline Liquors. Pours a pitch black body with a great creamy espresso brown head that fell to a thin covering. The nose is pretty great, roast, espresso, dark chocolate, and just a little bit of hops. Smells like dessert! The first sip takes me back though, very astringent and over roasted with too much alcohol and too much hops. The bitterness from the chocolate combine with the hops to just assault the tongue. Hot harsh finish. The mouthfeel doesn’t help things either, it’s just not thick or creamy enough to withstand all this alcohol or hops. This just is not that pleasurable to drink. Too much of everything.

22oz bottle, courtesy of scraff. Thanks, Scott! Pours a dark chocolate-brown coor; thin medium brown head with patchy lacing. Lots of dark chocolate, coffee, and nougat; very nice chocolate character in the nose; very soft. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: very bitter chocolate, roasted malts, and nougat upfront; relaxed carbonation; very bitter (although underhopped), and heavy chocolate notes throughout. Difficult to drink a lot of this. Lengthy, dry finish: bitter chocolate and roasted malts / smoked meats at the end.

A healthy pour produces a cresting, initially four-finger thick, richly browned, frothy head. As the head slowly collapses it leaves quite a bit of lacing on the sides of my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is quite simply black and remains opaque no matter how close I hold it up to the light. Bitter burnt grain aroma and substantially toasted malt aromas are easily noticeable. At times a rich chocolate note is noticed, but at others it is drowned out by the roast character. The burnt malt notes at times can be overwhelmingly sharp, acrid and acidic and that once noticed chocolate note seems to be a faint memory. Hot alcohol notes are noticeable as the beer gets near room temperature.

Thick and creamy feeling up front and not any where near as sweet as the body would suggest. Lots of bitter burnt malt notes linger from beginning to end and in fact really lingers on in the palate after the beer has gone down my throat. Some thin, bitter, dark chocolate notes are found in the middle of this beer and the finish has a lingering note of dusty, dark cocoa powder. Even as the beer gets substantially warmer it does not lose its aggressive, acrid burnt flavors. They become perhaps a touch more tempered, but still overly influence the finish and make this excessively bitter. On the plus side, while it is quite burnt in character, the flavor does note get overly acidic from the burnt notes.

This beer is going to need some time before I can really get into it. The question remains though if it will mellow before it becomes overly oxidized. A great beer for those who like aggressively roasted flavors, I can’t quite get into this though as it makes me think I am chewing on charcoal.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Bottle.
Pours a near perfect black with an aroma of raw chocolate and plastic oatmeal. Flavor is a smoky campfire chocolate blend, with hints of cocoa and fudge. Thick, full mouthfeel. Awesome brew! Hope this is on the horizon for Texas.