Beer Review: Schlafly Oatmeal Stout

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.7 percent

Appearance: This is a dark beer. It highly resembled a glass of cola. Just without the stickiness! The body is mostly black. I wasn't able to distinguish any brown or reddish hues hanging around. There was a ton of beige-colored bubbles and they rushed to the top. The interesting thing about this was the fact that the bubbles held the same color as they rose up from the bottom. The head of the brew was also a beige color and enabled some lacing inside the glass.

Smell: This beer was very dark and roasty, but a surprising creaminess was also present in my nose. The malt in this is also strong and dark in terms of smell. There was also a very prevalent aroma of oats. Not that I didn't expect it, but it's got to be in there, right?

Taste: I was hit with sweet caramel and the oats on the front. On the back was a ton of tasty, yet dark and roasted barley. The barley and hop notes contributed to an interestingly dry finish. There was also some chocolate that peeped through in the flavor as this beer warmed. Another note I took as this brew warmed was the fact that all of the flavors came together like some ice creams do when gets really soft and melts. Everything just gelled.

Overall Rating:  

This was the first time I've had an oatmeal stout that had a really dark and roasty backbone. I'm used to ones that are much lighter in the flavor department. With that said, I really enjoyed this. I think darker is the way to go with oatmeal stouts.  The dark and roasted barley worked well with the hops, too. As I mentioned earlier,  it just got better as it warmed. Just like some good baseball pitchers throw harder as the game goes on, the flavors tasted better with each sip.

Beer Review: Troegs Java Head Stout

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 7.5 percent

Appearance: It seems as if the stouts that put themselves ahead of others in the pack seem to be those that have a very dark, black color. Java Head Stout fits the bill in this department. The only presence of carbonation that's visible to the naked eye is what's in the foamy, tan head atop the brew. It's tan and is very reminiscent of what foams up when you pour a glass of cola. It was somewhat weak retention, but there was a nice thin layer of foam throughout the drink. I've seen confusion in reports of this being both a regular stout and an oatmeal stout. it is in fact an oatmeal if you check on the Troegs website. More evidence is in the beady lacing the tan head will leave inside your glass.

Smell: Overall, the theme of this beer is darkness. I caught a ton of dark and roasted coffee beans. Behind that was plenty of dark chocolate to counter the coffee's bitterness with something sweet. These two aromas are very powerful, but not overbearing to the point where it's unnecessary.

Taste: This beer kind of tasted like an intense mocha from an upscale coffee shop. The two dominant aspects of the beer's aroma were also the two dominant features in the taste. I'm a guy that doesn't like putting all kinds of junk in his coffee in the mornings. I like it black and the taste of this beer reminded me of that. The coffee was dark, roasty and robust. the sweetness of the chocolate complimented the bolder flavor very well. There was also a decent backbone of roasted malt on the front of the tongue. The flavors seem to mesh well as the beer warms, making it that much smoother despite the boldness.

Overall Rating: 

This is an excellent beer. If I had to say it was missing anything it would be an obvious presence of oats since this is an oatmeal stout. The only thing that shows is the beady lacing as I mentioned, but I didn't pick up any in the aroma or the taste. That might be attributed to the dominance of the coffee and dark chocolate that's in this brew. Still, those two flavors make this an awesome drink. This could go with a nice breakfast in some cases!

God Bless Breckenridge

You were most likely watching an NFL game on television when a Coors Light commercial hit the screen and you pondered to yourself what in the world the phrase "Taste the Cold" meant.

For me, it's one of those things where you have to remind yourself to breath because the phrase doesn't make one bit of sense. When I learned about the five senses in elementary school I knew pretty well that you could only feel the cold, but not taste it. Then again Coors Light doesn't taste real great, in my opinion. So, we can obviously see a possibility as to why that phrase was thrown together in the first place. If you can't tell, I don't really like Coors Light.

This isn't the first time I've posted about the advertising campaigns of Breckenridge Brewery. They're well-known for the television ads mocking big market beer commercials. I really can't get enough of them. According to a newer post by Beer Pulse, there is a new set of mockery commercials.

This new ad campaign puts me in the mood for possibly receiving a case of the Breckenridge sampler this Christmas which includes Vanilla Porter and Oatmeal Stout.
 

Beer Rankings Updated

The Beer Rankings are officially updated. Highlights of my revisions include:

• The complete list has expanded from 20 beers to 24 beers.
• East End's Monkey Boy has cracked the top-10.
• The infamous and flirtatious Blueberry Blonde that I encountered at Pearl Street Grill and Brewery in Buffalo has taken a big hit as it doesn't appear that it's made by its brewer anymore.
• The very popular seasonal, Troegs Nugget Nectar is now ranked on the list.
• As I've been reintroduced to Oatmeal Stouts, I've added my first of the type to the rankings.
• Plus, two more brews are included.

You can find the Beer Rankings in the main tool bar up above or by clicking right here.

Dark Side of the Glass

Image via Wikipedia

Come to the dark side.

Wednesday evening I came across a piece on CraftBeer.com debunking the myth that dark beers have higher alcohol content and more calories than lighter-colored beers.

It was a fine tune to my ears as I've been a slight proponent of that issue for the last few months. A while back I had two posts that featured a few links to studies saying that not only was beer healthy to consume daily in moderation, but in most cases the darker the beer is the better it is for you.

The article makes a few good points on how some lighter-colored beers have plenty more alcohol in them, along with having a lot more calories. I've noticed that some of the darker beers I've tried have an oddly low number of calories. I never thought of checking into the numbers of some of the lighter ones until I read the article last night.

Since I've embarked on this quest to try as many good beers as possible I've made numerous trips to the gym. It's common sense to figure that since you're drinking a bit more beer than your body's used to, that you might put on a few extra and unnecessary pounds.

Add that to my love of pairing a well-crafted beer with an awesome meal most evenings out of the week. Let's just say that I, a person infested with paranoia, was in a rush to pay for my gym membership at the turn of the new year.

Let's fast forward a month and a half. According to my Foursquare account, I've been to my gym 25 times as of yesterday. On average I burn around 500-600 calories per trip. So, if my math is correct I've burnt at least 12,500 calories so far in 2012 (500*25) and that's just the minimum!

I've weighed myself twice since I started hitting the gym. Once in January and once in February. The last time I bothered to weigh myself was last summer when I weighed around 182 lbs. This January I was suddenly 170 lbs. In February I was down to 162.

Now, I'm not one of those that takes a notebook with them for a workout to record reps, times etc. I'm sure the exercising I've done has played a huge role in what I've lost. I also don't have a complete breakfast every day as I substitute some blueberries and blackberries with a glass of orange juice before heading out. I've almost completely cut out pop/soda from my diet. I'm no dietician, but it's of my opinion that some of the beer I drank also played a role in a bit of this.

Let's take a look at some of the darker beers with lower calorie counts.

• Guinness Draught: Estimated calorie amount is 123. This is among the lowest calorie amounts I've come across in any beer. This beer is also one of the darkest and stronger tasting ones out there. Eating three or four cookies puts more calories into your body than this beer does.
• Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout: Estimated calorie amount is 150. Also a very dark beer as well as supplying you with that chocolaty and coffee thickness.
• Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald: Estimated calorie amount is 174. Haven't had this in a few years, but I remember it being thick, strong and black.

Keep in mind that if you plan to remain at your current weight or even wish to lose a few pounds, I'm not saying that drinking beer will help the pounds just fall off, but some beers are a healthier alternative in some cases as opposed to soft drinks which can hold calorie counts that are almost double.

You also can't slug down beers like some college kids do most nights either. I've obviously added a few other tricks such as exercise and fruit to my repertoire to help stay at a certain weight and it turns out that I've actually lost some.

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Beer Review: Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: Five percent

Appearance: Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is a fairly dark beer. It's very bubbly as there is plenty of carbonation. The head is somewhere in between a white and a tan. So, let's just say that it's a beautiful shade of beige. It doesn't leave much lacing, but you will have a thin layer of it all of the way down.

Smell: This beer gives you a potent scent of chocolate, coffee and oats. My dad even took a whiff of this beer and proclaimed that he had never come across an oatmeal stout that emanated such a scent of oats as this beer did. I enjoyed taking an extra sniff as I took each gulp of this.

Taste: The coffee and chocolate mix well and almost taste creamy. The oats give this beer a fascinating taste on the finish. I didn't even want to swallow this beer. I much rather would have just let it sit in my mouth so I can savor that awesome combination of flavors.

Overall Rating:    

The first oatmeal stout I ever had tasted very sour to me. It took someone explaining to me that it most likely was a batch of beer gone bad. So, I obviously gave the style another chance. The results were obviously a positive. By the way, I love the gold foil over the bottle cap.

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