Black River Oatmeal Stout
Paw Paw Brewing Company

Pours a light coffee color with cocoa foam. Roasty, almost coffee like notes on the nose. The sip follows, with a bit of an astringent finish. Canned, hint of an off note which reminds me of butterscotch as it warms.

Poured into a snifter at cellar temperature after the geyser stopped flowing. Very effervescent. Huge head took quite some time to dissipate.
Black liquid and light brown head, looks like a stout.
Smelled like a stout, what I could smell. My nose is damaged so some scents are lost on me.
The taste surprised me, I wasn’t expecting much but it had bakers cocoa and some dark fruit and what I imagined as mellow coffee. The depth of flavor in this was excellent considering the ABV of 5.8%
The feel, once the head settled down, was again, surprisingly viscous for the ABV. Very nice mouth feel.
OA, I was surprised in a pleasant way, definitely worth revisiting.

Very good taste with a smooth creamy feel. The description is very accurate.

 

 

 

Taste: roasted caramel malts, semi sweet, rich malt balance. Smokey malt nose. Black/brown hue, opaque, with a delicate lace to head. Medium body. deeper notes and flavor came out as it warmed. 31.6 IBUs, had this a couple years ago.

 

The appearance was a black color with a one finger white to off white foamy head that dissipated within about a minute leaving some light speckled spider web lacing sticking to the sides of the glass. The smell was super sweet chocolate in a dry sort of way. Light vanilla enters in after a minute of warming. The taste was a really nice blend of the previously mentioned sweet flavors and then letting a roastiness come in nicely. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium on the body with a fairly decent sessionability about it. The carbonation was there but nothing overbearing. The aftertaste had a long sweet chocolate vanilla which lead to a dry sweet chocolate finish. Overall, this was a really nice sweet stout that made a fantastic dessert by itself.

 

 

I'm greeted with dark chocolate, fig, , a whiff of smoke and sea salt. Swiss milk chocolate creaminess leads to finish that just sort of disappears. No discernible hop bitterness but not too sweet.

 

 

 

 

Undated bottle at 42 degrees into snifter
$ 1.79/12 oz bottle at the Lager Mill
Aroma of toasted malt and bitter chocolate, weak, doesn’t last
Head average (three cm, aggressive pour), light brown, frothy, slowly diminishing to
Lacing excellent – complete curtains of tiny bubbles
Body dark brown, opaque
Flavor light bitter chocolate, ends slightly bitter; no hops, no alcohol, no diacetyl
Palate medium to full, creamy, soft carbonation

Appearance 4.5, Aroma 3.75, Flavor 4, Palate 4, Overall 4

 

 

I picked up a bottle of Paw Paw's Black River Oatmeal Stout last week for $1.69 at The Lager Mill. I'm in the mood for something that's on the darker side today and It's been a while since I've had an Oatmeal Stout, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks nice, but I don't see how it goes with the name and it isn't too eye catching. It poured a nice black color that didn't let any light come through and it had almost two fingers worth of creamy dark tan head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some patchy rings of lacing behind/ This is a good looking Oatmeal Stout, I have no complaints.

S- The aromas starts off with a slightly higher amount of medium sweetness with the malts being the first to show up and they impart some nice roasted malts, sweet malt, chocolate and light coffee like aromas with the chocolate sticking out the most and it blends with this creamy aroma that makes a little milk chocolate and mocha like. This beer has a good aroma, ii has a pretty robust aroma which is what I like in this style.

T- The taste seems to be similar to the aroma and it starts off with a slightly higher amount of medium sweetness with the malts still being the first to show up and they impart the same aspects. but they are just a little lighter this time. Up next comes that same creamy aspect that I got in the aroma with a light amount of bitterness on finish and it's slightly watery with a slightly smokey, roasted malt and chocolate like aftertaste. This is a pretty nice tasting beer, but I wish the finish wasn't slightly watery.

M- Smooth, a little crisp, slightly sticky, on the slightly thicker side of being medium bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel is pretty nice and it works well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a pretty nice beer and I thought it was a good example of the style, it had had all the aspects that I look for in the style, but the finish made it just slightly rough around the edges, but it didn't hurt the beer that much. This beer has nice drinkability, I could drink a couple of these, especially in the winter time. What I like the most about this beer is the aroma, it's good and i enjoyed it. What I like the least about this beer was the finish, it could use just a little work. I would buy this beer again when in the mood for this style and I would recommend trying it if you like the style or dark beers in general. All in all I liked this beer, it was a nice example of the style and I would drink it again. So far it's my favorite Paw Paw beer and it's an above average example of the style. Nice job guys, I like this one.