Oatmeal Stout
Russell Brewing Company

 

Opaque brown-black color. Poured a head of very fine bubbles, but it collapsed in half a minute to a surface with medium sized bubbles randomly rising from the bottom. No lacing.

Slightly sweet with a slight amount of very roasted (almost combusted) malt. Swirling the glass kicked up slightly more malt and a sweet and fresh barnyard. Odd that some scents I don't like became attractive when they show up in very small amounts.

Very mild dark roasted malt with mild bitters. Slightly sweet. A bit of coffee. This is very close to Guinness stout, which I have always considered a light beer. Compared to Guinness, this is a bit sweeter and is slightly harsh from malts that are roasted further. Many people wouldn't notice the difference.

This goes flat in the glass very quickly. The first few mouthfuls foamed up, but that stopped after a few minutes. Similarly, the body was heavy and creamy at the beginning, but quickly turned to a medium body without any cream.

This is pretty close to style reference. I would prefer that it have more carbonation. Perhaps this needs one of those capsules in the can that carbonates it when the can is opened. Cute black and white cartoon of a cat on the label that implies that this would be an excellent breakfast beer.

Russell Brewing 'Oatmeal Stout' @ 4.7% , served from a 650 ml bottle
A-pour is cola brown from the bottle to almost black in the glass with a medium tan head leaving a spotty lace along the pint
S-malted barley
T-creamy , dry finish
MF-medium body , ok carbonation
Ov-weak beer
prost LampertLand

473ml can - a stout that comes in at less than 5% ABV? WTF? Oh, right.

This beer pours a fairly solid black, with subtle amber basal edges, and a teeming tower of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly bubbly tan head, which leaves some stellar random and streaky lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa powder, some free-range ashiness, faint cafe-au-lait, and some plain earthy, musty, and floral green hops. The taste is gritty and grainy cereal malt, mild dark chocolate, day-old coffee grounds, cold cream, faint dark stone fruity notes, and more well-understated earthy, leafy, and piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-satisfying frothiness, the body a so-so medium weight, and mostly smooth, but for a touch of wet char maybe not making nice with the locals at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, barely, as the malt tails off, leaving the cocoa and coffee essences lingering on an unstable branch.

Overall - this is certainly a well-made offering, if perhaps a tad simple, but drinkable enough on its own merits. Worth checking out, especially if you're more into the the dark side of things, at least beer-wise, I mean.