Black Raven Oatmeal Stout
Moab Brewery

draught
Thin, ivory colored head. Quite a dark chestnut brown appearance. Moderate level of wood tinged, dark roasted grains, for the aroma. Fairly light bodied. Subtle flavors of woody, dark roasted grains, for the taste. Finishes with mainly the dark roasted grains.

 

 

Dull black, and actually appearing as mahogany brown at certain angles, with a foamy tan head that condenses to a short, level blanket while remaining airy.

Light roast coffee meets cocoa and leafy tobacco via a frothy, relatively light body, finishing a little tangy and semi-dry. Some cola and sassafras root elements emerge shortly thereafter.

solid stuff, classic recipe, served on nitro at the brewery. near black but with some deep brown edges in the light, not real viscous for being oat based either visually or in mouthfeel, and it drinks a little lighter overall than i want it to for the style, not much bitter roast coming through, the low end is not all that low. i taste a little earthiness in the grain, and there are some minerals to this as well. a mellow english type ale yeast is in the background behind a deep dry chocolate layer and some mid palate breadiness. its ever so slightly astringent to finish, still very smooth, even if the body is lighter than i generally look for in one of these. pleasant as a first beer of the day, especially on a little bit of a hangover, but overall this is quite unremarkable, good but nothing special, and somewhat conservative on the dark barley, which i think is to its detriment overall. a had a good time sipping pints in here, but none of the beers really did all that much for me. still, cool that this place can exist here and i appreciate an old school recipe like this.

 

I tried this at the brewery. It poured an opaque dark with no head an no lace. The scent had subtle roast and semi sweet chocolate notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with roast and chocolate presence. The mouthfeel was light in body with good carbonation. Overall it was an ok beer.

 

 

 

For a 4% stout, it's pretty solid. Session stout? I doubt that will ever catch on, but it had a great smell and some good body to it for such a small beer.

 

Good, tasty stout. Moab Brewing, Utah, June 2016

 

 

 

 

Tried this one many years ago, when Moagb was very limityed by Utah's pathetic legal restrictions on breweries. I remember it being a good roasty stout, but seemed to miss out on some of the heft I prefer a stout to have. But I felt like they were brewing with 1 hand tied behind their collective back.