Oatmeal Stout
Liberator Brewing Company & HomeBrew Supply

Though I didn’t specify to the bartender that I wanted the Oatmeal Stout on nitro, it was only listed once on the menu. It said nitro, so that’s what I expected. Instead, I was served the regular pour which is too bad because this beer would have been much improved with some extra propellant body.

This is a strangely sweet stout suggesting that perhaps lactose is added to the wort. I can’t otherwise imagine why an oatmeal stout would taste so much like candy. I found notes of birch beer in the taste with coffee in the finish and was reminded of when I used to sweeten my coffee with maple syrup. That’s a nice way to enjoy coffee now and again. A comparable flavor is expressed here though it doesn’t work nearly as well.

Liberator’s Oatmeal Stout smells like port wine and molasses. The color is midnight ruby, several shades short of opaque. It produces no head or lace and is exceedingly sweet.

At 9.5% ABV this is a fairly potent brew. Some might enjoy it simply for its muscular profile, but it pays no credible homage to the style and lacks body. A mixed drink of rum and flat cherry cola might approximate the overall character of this alleged oatmeal stout.