Stillwater Surround (oak-smoked stout)

 One of the more recent releases from America's chief gypsy brewery is an imperial stout brewed with oak-smoked wheat malt named Surround.  I've previously had several beers from Stillwater (and reviewed one of them), but Surround is fairly unusual for them.  Normally Stillwater focuses on Belgian-style beers, particularly farmhouse ales.  To my knowledge this is their first attempt at a stout.  Let's see how it fares.

Stillwater Surround looks like many other stouts.  Dark tan foam forms a head about two fingers high, and retains quite well.  Body is pitch black, as expected.

The aroma is a bit tamer than I would expect from a smoked beer, let alone a smoked imperial beer.  There is a blend of chocolate, something akin to plum (very faint), and a light smokey character.  I wonder what percentage of the grist contains smoked malt.  Based on the rather mild character of the smoke, I would venture a guess it was rather small.  Most smoked beers reek of smoke and ash.

The smoked malt was definitely used as an accent here rather than the main attraction, which is fine by me.  It also makes this one of the more accessible smoked beers.  The dominant flavors here are bitter dark chocolate, espresso, and a wee bit of smokey campfire, more or less in that order.  A hint of hop oil comes through as well.  This beer is definitely on the bitter-acrid side of the brewing spectrum.  The texture is full without being terribly sweet.  Truthfully I would have preferred a bit more sweetness to balance out the hop oil and char character, but it's nothing worth fretting about.

All in all, a pleasantly smokey beer that doesn't overdo anything.