Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

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

RateBeer Rating, Style and Glass: 97, Imperial Stout, Snifter ABV, Volume & Calories: 9.7 % in 22 fl oz. estimated at 400 C Purchased at: Joe Canal’s, Lawrenceville, NJ for $6.99 Aroma: liquor, alcohol, licorice, burnt, grains, coffee. 10 out of 10. Visuals: opaque, black, thick, brown wispy head, silky persistent lace. 5 out of 5. Taste: layered, coffee, espresso, malty, hoppy, bitter, dry, masterly crafted. 10 out of 10. Palate: sandy, dry, sponge, long dark burnt finish. 5 out of 5. Overall: Like an espresso milkshake with dark chocolate shavings. I will go and seek this out again - amazing. It is masterly crafted and an immediate favorite. 20 out of 20.

My favorite! Very thick and creamy. You can deffinitely taste the chocolate. I wish I could get more of it!

Very dark pour with a thin head, great aroma, taste and mouth feel. It is everything you would want in a stout, add bitter chocolate what a treat.

Poured from a bottle into a large brandy snifter. The head was rather thin and short lived but that doesn’t bother me all that much. The wonderful smell of coffee and chocolate bellowed thickly from the glass. The palate was silky smooth and full bodied. Exactly what I look for in a beer. It had a rather bitter flavor. It wasn’t like the harsh bitterness of overly hoppy beer, but the well-balanced sweet bitterness of dark chocolate and coffee. The chocolatey after taste really stays on the tongue long after drinking. This is one of my top 5 favorite beers.

Bottle. Very roasty, POWERFUL taste of bitter chocolate and dark malts. Didn’t really notice oatmeal. Pours even darker than the IRS, head is very dark brown. Very little sweetness, lots of bitterness and roastiness. Not much hoppiness. Easily my favorite Stone anniversary brew to date.

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.

This beer is amazing. The sweet smell of chocolate with the soft creaminess of oatmeal stout combined with a hint of chocolate. This beer is like an orgasm in a bottle for stout lovers. Seek this out and drink it. Now! Just quit reading, get offline, and go to the beer store.

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.