Old Rip Oatmeal Stout
Big Time Brewery & Alehouse

 

 

Dark black in the pint shaker. Modest foam, but carbonation is apparently not the big time deal. Scratchy and grainy taste. Smooth and silky mouthfeel.

Brewer says this is made with Columbus, Chinook, and Cascade hops, along with oats and flaked rye. It has the winey suggestions of an Export Stout. Tangy and chocolatey with some very sharp acidity to go with the big malts. Blackened, charred, and roasted barley in plentitude.

Quite drinkable with a force field of black hole dark caramel. On tap at the brewpub in Seattle. [notes from Nov. 20, 2013 visit]

 

Draft at the brewpub in Seattle.

Pitch black and completely opaque with a two finger frothy mocha head that slowly fades into a lasting ring.  Chunks of soapy lacing left behind.

Complex aroma wih a good balance of roasted and sweet malt notes along with some earthy hops.  Hints of dark chocolate, toffee, oatmeal, rye and hazelnut along with lactic sugar and earthy pine.  Roasted but not acrid with sweetness and hops balancing things out.

On the fuller end of medium bodied with a really nice balance of dark malt and bitter earthy hops.  Similar to the aroma, the malts are equally roasted and sweet.  Hints of espresso, oatmeal and dark chocolate along with milk chocolate, toffee and lactic cream all balanced by earthy hops.  Hops provide adry bitterness that complimets that roasted character yet there is still enough sweetness to balance things out.  Complex, flavorful beer with a well masked making it very drinkable.

 

Had this beer on-tap in a pint glass at the brewery.

Appearance: otally black with a finger of creamy tan foam. Looks good.

Smell: nice rich coffee aroma. Simple but very enjoyable.

Taste: big roasty coffee flavor with a hint of chocolate around the edges. There's also a nice, sweetish fruitiness which adds a tasty complexity. Yum.

Mouthfeel: medium thick body with a good carbonation and a thick, roamy silkiness. Really wonderful.

Overall: a straightforward and desirable oatmeal stout. I can dig it.

On draught at the brewpub, Old Wooly is blackish garnet with a ruddy, dark tan collar that leaves only the faintest whisper of scattered lace.

Smell is very metallic, iron, with some chocolate and caramel creeping out as it warms.

Taste is big, a robustly malty beer, sweet, charred, lightly roasted, a bit of metal as well, but not nearly as pronounced as the nose, the oats really giving the rich dark malts a nice soft, sweet flavor.

Mouthfeel is slick, not quite as soft as I expect from the oatmeal. Medium bodied.

Drinkability is quite good, as long as I don't take too deep a whiff - I'm not a fan of the smell. A firm stout with robustly satisfying flavors.

been a while for the big time. The excellent barkeep poured me a taste of the pumpkin, then a taste of his concoction with the old rip and pumpkin, and I figured if it made the pumpkin a fine beer, why not go straight to the source?

lustrous and illustriously black, glowing. nice little offwhite head. has some roast and coffee tones, then the oatmeal kicks in, delivering a smooth drink and easy finish. the coffee and roast are lighthearted, bellowing with the jolly laughter of the Clippers' continued follies, and the attempt of friends to claim that they will not, again, be a failure this season.
definitely recommend this to anyone who comes to the big time.

Dark brown pour into a tulip glass. Very little head. Nice lace, though.

Nose not as strong as most. Roast malt mainly. Weak light coffee. Trace of anise.

Thinner feel than expected. More flavor than the nose suggests. Coffee first, rich dark chocolate follows. Smooth finish with a nice dose of bitters.

Easy drinking dark stout.

Old Rip has a lustrous, black lacquer sheen - very glossy - and a cork-colored eclipsed head that's shy on lace. Initially, it boasted an outpouring of strong black patent flavor and smell, though its forward leaning roastiness is soon followed by an almost milk stout-like flush of sweetness, which momentarily blossoms with some toffee in the aroma. Mouthfeel is agreeably glassy. A fun session ale, but I wouldn't take it to Portland.
4.8% ABV.

EXCELLENT!!From tap at Big Time..A wonderful mix of wood smokiness, rich and deeply roasted dark malts that lend an awesome burnt character, dark chocolate, oats, and a hint of sweetness. This tasty brew had a thick, tan, creamy head that sat atop the inky body. Smooth, rich mouthfeel. Awesome. Took home a box of Stout

This was served to me a nice cocoa colored head that was about half an inch high. Body is black enough to please even the most devout stout lover. I detected sweet chocolate in the nose. The taste hits you first with mild sweetness, then thick massive chocolate. I honestly have never tasted chocolate like this in a stout. Beneath the chocolate there's a bit of roastiness to be found and maybe just a bit of plums. Mouth is nice and smooth. With many of the best stouts I am sure I would find the flavor oppressive after a glass or two. This one manages to be very flavorful but still mild enough to session. Bill, the brewer at Bigtime does some incredible work!

There was a time in my life when I was young, hip and cool. Ok, I was never hip, and I'm so far from cool I need a calling card just to get myself in position to say "Can you hear me now?" But I was young. Honest. And in those days when I was young, I lived in the U District within walking distance of the Big Time. Ah, those were heady days of never getting laid, eating too many burritos at Pepe's, and then wandering down to the Big Time to drink beer and not get laid some more.

These were also the early days of my microbrew explorations. (Side Note: There has been some debate on this site about the appropriateness of the term "microbrew". Well, the state of Washington defines a microbrewery as one that produces less than 60K bbl per year. Consarn it, I'm using the term I grew up with.) My friend Ken and I would go on weekly pub crawls, trying beer after beer, just for the hell of it. One thing I learned fairly early on is a predilection for porters and stouts. Old Rip was not a regular tap for the Big Time, but it was always a welcome return on those occasions when it was available.

I haven't had the Old Rip in probably six years or so, and it was a pleasant surprise when I walked into Collins Pub yesterday and Seth pours me a draught and says, "Here. You'll like it." You know what, he was right. I'd forgotten how fond I am of this beer.

Appearance: I try and try to come up with other words for "really, really, black" but continually fail. I've worked in the technology world for about six years now, and the intellectual atrophy I've suffered over those years becomes more and more acute. Anyway, it's black. Real black. Impenetrably black. SR-71 black. "Works every time" black. Yet with this lovely, light brown head.

Smell: Strong malt nose, with a light, dry, roasty finish.

Taste: Not as roasty as I remember, but still delicious. The oatmeal does a nice job of balancing out the bitterness of the roasted barley, and the alcohol of the beer (this one rolls in around 8%).

Mouthfeel: Excellent. It glides around in my mouth like a pair of velour pants on a suede couch.

Drinkability: I would have had another if I'd had the time to stay. However, I was also working on a pint of Boundary Bay Imperial Oatmeal Stout and some Old Rasputin.

pitch black even in a sampler sized glass with tan head of fine bubbles.

smell isnt' very strong, like fresh coffee beans but not very intense.

taste first hits with the coffelike flavor. Quite dry initial flavor as a result although residual sweetness exists too. a nutty flavor exists too, maybe hazlenut. quite tasty though, dry for the style makes me liek it better. less coffee flavor woudl win it more points.

Glug, glug, glug goes the growler, and reveals a densely dark brown, nearly impenetrable appearance, with a perfectly taosty tan, cocoa-colored head, a nice 1/2" head, before slowly diminishing...

Intesnely coffeeish aroma, rich and roasty, super-nice...just what you what in a stout, and more. I'm drinking this into the nose, as long as I can...love it....

Tastin' it: nicely mellow arrival on the hop, though thick and full of stoutish flavor. Coffee/cocoa returns in the taste, full on the palate, fresh and full of flavor. An exceptional stout, only one sip in...beautifully bittersweet, tastefully chocolatey, deliciously coffeeish, roundly roasty...

Medium-to-full in body, big flavor, medium-length finish, with ringing roasty tones...who wouldn't love this stout? I am quite happy with it, and could find no fault.

Not amazing, but juuuust right!

Much thanks to Kim for the growler!

Black in color with slightly tan head. Very sweet malt flavor with some smokyness. The sweetness is cloyingly. Tastes more like a dessert, which isn't necessarily bad, but not quite my cup of tea (or stout, as it were). This may be a good beer to pleasantly suprise someone in the "i-don't-like-beer" camp...

Edit: After getting about halfway down my pint, I'm a bit desensitized to the sweetness, so it's getting better. But still, I'd pass on ordering this one again.

Edit (10/1/2006.. almost a year later): Either my palette has changed or the beer has changed but I rather like it now. I changed the scores above to reflect this. It's still rather sweet, but not cloying. Nice velvetty mouthfeel. I *will* be ordering this again.

Mid September 2005. Had at the Big Time Brewery in Seattle, WA

Presentation- via samplers from the tap.

Appearance- Nice black pour with a very dirty brown head. Decent lacing as well.

Smell- Smoky, but not overpowering, dark malt and chocolate.

Taste- Pretty hefty chocolate flavor with the dark roasted malts to follow. Not as much smoke flavor as detected in the nose.

Mouthfeel- Very creamy with very light carbonation.

Drinkability- Another great one from this Brewery. Super drinkable. Would recommend this one for sure.

Pours out a pitch black with a small foamy light brown head that dissolved fairly quick leave light webbings of lace around the glass. Aroma is quite big, plenty of roasted malts and dark chocolate. Light vinous notes were an interesting addition that really made this smell huge, even though I check on the website afterwards and it’s only about 4.5%. Plenty of big roasted flavors from the get go with a big bitter dark chocolate component. Some smokiness and dark fruit sweetness are present as well. Again a surprisingly big taste for a small beer ABV wise. About medium mouthfeel and pretty creamy. Easy drinking for sure, I could have had more after the growler I split. Very tasty stuff that’s up there with my favorite oatmeal stouts. Thanks goes to skyhand for the growler.

Sampled from a 2L growler which was kindly sent to me by skyhand. Poured a real deep near black with a thin tan head. Roasted nose that really took me by surprise. Probably the first oatmeal stout I've had that uses a significant amount of smoked malt. Both the aroma and the flavor remind me of sitting around a smoldering campfire. There is a ton of dark roasted malt used in this as well & I would put this on the low end as far as percentage of oatmeal included. Enough there to make its presence felt, but not enough to impart a creamy smoothness (which is fine by me). Complex flavor profile with the smoke & roastiness and also hints of bittersweet cocoa, sweet dark fruits, & dull bitterness. Finishes clean and smooth which only increases its drinkability. Certainly a one of a kind oatmeal stout & definitely worth trying. Good stuff. Thanks again, Kim.