Southern Tier Oat

Another stout from Southern Tier.  I believe they retired this one this year, meaning this is about a year old.  Not that it should matter much, it's nearly 11% and not particularly hoppy.  There wasn't a bottle date on it.

Name:                  SouthernTier Oat

Style:                    Oatmeal Stout

Twist:                   None, just really strong

Strength:              10.8%

Notes:  Poured into my Old Guardian goblet/snifter.

Vital stats, per bottle: 10.8% alcohol, 27 degrees Plato, hopped with Columbus and Willamette, malted with 2-row pale malt, oats, caramel malt, barley flakes, chocolate malt and black malt.  “Best at 48F” from a snifter.

Look: Pretty much pitch black.  Decent lacing and head retention.

Smell: a generous amount of black barley and oats.  Reminds me of a grain mill around harvest time.  Hops are not really detectable at all.

Taste:  similar to the aroma, though there are also some mildly spicy-bitter hops now in the background.  Oats steal the show though, this is easily the most oat-flavored oatmeal beer I have ever had.  As tasty as oats in beer can be, this is almost overkill here.  Needs more chocolate barley flavor too, as it seems the dominant barley flavors are derived from the black malt.  Bitter dark chocolate and subtle notes of coffee round out the flavor profile.  No alcohol flavor is noted.

Mouthfeel:  as is to be expected from an oatmeal stout, the texture is delectable.  It isn’t the smoothest or creamiest oatmeal stout I have had (that honor still goes to Samuel Smith’s), but it is luscious nonetheless.  Southern Tier’s signature thickness might be holding it back.

A pretty good beer overall.  Definitely tasty, even if the oats are overdone….but then, this wouldn’t be a Southern Tier “Blackwater” release if it wasn’t overdone.  Right?