SNAX!
O'Connor Brewing Co.

Appearance: Pours fudge brown with a khaki film that fades to a ringlet; splashy lacing

Smell: Ashy milk chocolate with nut skin bitterness

Taste: Milk chocolate forward with nut skin bitterness building; the finish brings more of the acrid nuts and less of the chocolate

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation; really thin for an imperial style

Overall: Not like any milk stout I have ever tasted, let along any imperial milk stout; another disappointment from O'Connor

 

 

This is a strong stout with a basis in milk stout!!! Picked up a 12 oz bottle at the Casual Pint in Virginia Beach VA. Pours a dense black color with no light getting through. The foamy tan head is huge with excellent retention. A second pour gives a big, long lasting head too. Thick patches of foamy lacing appear on the pint glass. Aroma is strong. Semi-sweet chocolate, lactose and malt. Taste is more of the same but there is a little alcohol presence too. The oatmeal does it's job - nice and smooth, other than a touch of alcohol. More of a stand-alone or dessert beer than something to have with food. I thought it was pretty good. I don't think we need a category for Imperial Milk Stout yet, since there are probably few beers like this. All in all it is pretty good though. O'Connor is one of the better local breweries.

 

 

 

 

 

On tap at Capitol City Brewing, pours as an opaque black with no head (once it arrived at our table). Aroma is vaguely like molasses. Taste is also very like molasses (if it were thinned with milk

Poured from a bottle into a snifter glass moderately hard, but only resulted in a half finger of tan head that faded soon to a ring of lacing. Smells of malt and chocolate, but soon fades to a sort of milk-stout something. Taste starts out a good combination of malt first/chocolate after, but as it warms it becomes more of a slightly bitter chocolate milk stout. Medium body and moderate carbonation that seems to bite at the beginning (not my preference). Drinkable chocolate/milk stout, but a bit odd.

 

 

The label claims this as an "IMPERIAL OATMEAL CHOCOLATE MILK STOUT."

Appearance: The beer is black with a short and light tinted khaki head. The head has good retention. Good lacing.

Aroma: It smells a bit like peanut butter and chocolate.

Taste: There is a prominent yeast flavor to the beer which is a bit meaty. The beer has a bit of a nutty flavor and a touch of burnt wood or carbon character mixed with bitter chocolate.

Mouthfeel: It feels full bodied and a bit chewy. It's the kind of beer that makes you smack your lips and click your tongue to figure out what that odd flavor or texture is.

Overall: It's an oddball and certainly not something I'd recommend to the average drinker or even buy again. The beer is all over the place as if trying to find an identity where it can. The label states that this is an "IMPERIAL OATMEAL CHOCOLATE MILK STOUT" and at no point did any oatmeal flavor or aroma come through at all. If you cooked a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave it would easily overpower the aroma found in this beer. Chocolate is fairly non-present. It can show up from time to time in the form of bitterness but that's about it. It seems as though the beer utilizes lactose to over-correct the bitterness of the beer and it does only that...over-corrects, detrimentally...This is a beer in inception rather than a beer in perfection.