Viator Obscura: S'Mores
Wandering Monsters Brewing Company

Poured into a Fremont small snifter. Pours a very dark mahogany brown, appearing opaque in the glass with a half finger dark khaki head that dissipates to patches with light lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, chocolate, marshmallows and cake batter. Flavor is dark toasted malt with light char, milk chocolate, marshmallow, graham cracker; quite sweet. Medium to heavy bodied with thick creaminess. Although I'm leaning away from dessert stouts now, I pulled the trigger on this stout from an unknown-to-me brewery to check them out. It is quite nice, but definitely a pastry style stout and fairly sweet. They have absolutely nailed the s'more flavor with clear graham cracker, quality chocolate and marshmallow (vanilla, when things are said and done). This is a mild sharpness or bitterness that is either char from the dark malt or light hopping, and although it is great for a stout, throws off the s'more taste a bit (I just imagined my s'more got too close to the campfire). The mouth feel is great, nearly unctuous like heavy cream, which is quite appropriate for a pastry stout. Very enjoyable, but the sweetness was a bit too much for me in the second half of the bottle. A quality dessert/pastry stout. I'd like to try the base stout if I ever run across it.