Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

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

Very dark brown. Roasty and burnt dark fruits on the nose - even more so than in the Zywiec I just had. There is a nice nuttiness to this nose as well, from the oatmeal. Very oaty body. Rich chocolate taste with a hint of roast, slight burnt fruit. This really cuts between your typical low-grav oatmeal stout and a top-fermented Baltic porter.

2009-06-12, blind tasting at Papsø’s, 7-4-8-4-16=39
Black color; medium head. Light aroma of roasted malt and alcohol, very light wood. Good body strength and round mouthfeel, strong chocolate and roasted malt flavor, inky salty, with strong bitterness and nice alcohol warmth. Very solid, good.

2008-09-09, draught at the Freakin’ Frog, Las Vegas, 6-3-7-3-14=33
Black color. Poor aroma, light roasted malt and chocolate. The mouthfeel is quite soft, with mild coffee flavor, chocolate; difficult to detect oatmeal characteristics. Side-to-side with a Drake’s Imperial Stout and Deschutes Imperial Porter, this is by far the least interesting.

Cask at GBBF 08. Jet black, low white head and low but fine condition. Pleasant mix of roast coffee and chocolate in the nose, full bodied sweet chocolate notes in the mouth with a balance of roasted bitter coffee and a hint of liquorice that lingers sweetly in the finish again to be balanced with a delicate coffee bitterness

Black pour (duh), decent tan head. Aroma has some cocoa, roasted malt, some smoked notes and alcohol aromatics. Flavor follows but is lower on chocolate than expected - it should be more up front. The smoke aspect almost gets me to smoked porter. Some fruity esters come in, a bit of dry cocoa. Mouthfeel is dry but a bit of silky smooth, lower body than expected. This beer opens up and gets more complex as it warms. A nice beer, although the end result is not quite meeting the name/description.

Huge aroma of chocolate and roast coffee! Black, pours a small cappuccino head. Taste is strong black coffee, rich malt and treacle, some light liquorice notes too. Full bodied, really well balanced, mouthfeel is lovely, silky smooth and bitter. Fantastic! Thank You Ron!

Dark beer with a foamy brown head that shrinks to an attractive whisp. Nose of Baker’s chocolate, alcohol and an almost smokey roast grain. Flavors of big burnt toast, bitter chocolate, ashes, nocitable alcohol and grassy hops. The chocolate is more subtle than expected. This is a really nice big stout.

Tap @ Stone Bistro during the RBSG 2008. Poured black with a copper edge and beige head. Very roasty aroma with some sweet coffee. Roasted malt and dark chocolate flavor. Warming with a medium body.

Bottle. Black with a small head and left no lacing. Full bodied with chocolate and a gentle bitterness which took time to develop. Impressive as you would expect from this brewery.