The two singles I bought were somewhere around $3.50 each, give or take a few dimes. They're bottled with a touch of class, with golden foil around the head and on top of the cap. The presentation just about matches the quality of the product, with the beer coming out on top.
Honestly, I don't know much about stouts, nor do I throw them down very often. My previous experiences with stouts involved Guinness (naturally) and some stout brew from Troegs, the exact name I can't remember. To take that back without using the backspace, this past fall I had some sort of double chocolate stout in a purple can, either 16 or 24 oz's (I enjoyed it out of a friend's fridge). I just saw it in the store last night...ahhh...I typed it in Google and found a picture. The brew is made from Young's. Moving on:
I poured the Oatmeal Stout by Samuel Smith (England) in my 16 oz mug (at least I think it's a 16 oz mug) using the straight down the middle pour that I'm under the impression goes without saying when dealing with a stout. I got a really nice head out of the bottle, and the smell is very nice. The head retention is remarkable. Mind you, I'm continuously swirling, but I'm about halfway through the beer and after letting the beer sit for over a minute, I've still got half an inch of head that is showing no signs of disappearing.
The taste is excellent. It offers flavor like a smoked beer (minus the salty beef jerky taste that I can't stand), roasted malts, black coffee, burnt caramel, with a balance that is stronger than any amount of bitterness that would show up, depending on the palate. Considering some of the stronger elements to this beer, it is pretty incredible that it fails to make me want to gag.
After enjoying two Oatmeal Stout singles from Samuel Smith, I not only am going to try another brew from Samuel Smith's Old Brewery, I'm going to explore more in the world of stouts.
No comments:
Post a Comment