Drake's Crude
Erie Brewing Co.

12 ounce bottle into tulip glass, no bottle dating. Pours nearly opaque dark brown/black color with a small dense light khaki head with decent retention, that reduces to a thin spotty lace cap that lingers. Light spotty lacing clings on the glass. Good appearance. Aromas of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, brown sugar, caramel, toasted oats, and dark bread; with light nuttiness, vanilla, smoke, dark fruit, herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malt and light earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, brown sugar, caramel, toasted oats, and dark bread; with light nuttiness, vanilla, smoke, dark fruit, herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness. Light herbal hop and roast bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, coffee, brown sugar, caramel, toasted oats, dark bread, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt and light earthy hop flavors; with a nice roasted bitter/sweet balance, and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Minimal dryness. Light-medium carbonation and medium body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/silky, and slightly chalky balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Zero warming alcohol for 6.9%. Overall this is a nice oatmeal stout. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt and light earthy hop flavors; very smooth and easy to drink. A very enjoyable offering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12oz bottle into a pint glass. No freshness dating.

Looks really good, black body with hints of brown and red, small tan head which disappeared about 2/3rds down. Lacing was minimal. Good streams of carbonation up the side of the glass.

Getting an aroma of roasted malt and some chocolate.

Flavor is more of the roasted malt than the chocolate, though that is present.

Mouth was very thin, practically watery, pleasant soft feeling from the oatmeal. Was getting a slight alcohol burn further down the throat.

Overall, an okay stout. Not bad, but not great.

 

 

 

Served on tap in a pint glass

Appearance – The beer is served a deep brown, nearly black, color with a one finger head of tan foam. The head fades relatively quickly, leaving a decent level of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.

Smell – The aroma of the beer is quite heavy of chocolate and coffee with some other lighter notes of oat. A little bit of a vanilla smell as well as some notes of a slightly burnt and caramel aroma are there as well, producing a rather pleasant smell overall.

Taste – The taste begins with a smooth and sweet chocolate flavor mixed with a nice oatmeal base. As the taste advances it initially loses a bit of the sweetness with it gaining more coffee and a bit more roast to the middle of the flavor profile. This however changes later on as more oats and some vanilla comes to the tongue, with the coffee fading from the picture. With these transitions that occur toward the end, a very smooth and moderately roasted and sweeter flavor is left to linger on the tongue.

Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is on slightly thinner side for an oatmeal stout with a carbonation level that is rather light overall. The light carbonation was spot on for the style, but the thinner body could have used a bit of a boost as it would have nicely accentuated the sweeter chocolate and oatmeal flavors of the brew quite a bit better.

Overall – A very tasty and smooth oatmeal stout. A little on the more sweet chocolate side, but a very fine drinker overall.

 

Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has a black color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of chocolate, some oats. Taste is smooth, chocolate, malts, touch of oats, highly drinkable for this abv. Feels light in the mouth and overall is a good quality beer.

My favorite beer of all time. Pours a dark black. Like crude oil. Hence the name. Thin head which dissipates quickly with equally as quickly receding lacing. Smells....like sweet. Like chocolate.

Taste is insane. Just wow. Pure butterscotch/caramel/chocolate/vanilla. But all those flavors hit you in waves. IBU is probably close to 0. This is pretty much how I expected Harry Potter's "butterbeer" to taste like. God it tastes so good. MF is fine it is certainly full bodied and syrup-like. Overall 5/5.