Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout Ale

'Number one in a series of five stouts produced to help ease you through the cold and grey midwestern winters. This beer is full bodied with hints of chocolate, roasted barley, coffee flavors and a nice creamy head.'
-darkhorsebrewery.com

When I picked up this four pack I didn't know what to really expect. As you can see the bottles are as plain as you can be and the cardboard they were packaged in was completely blank. Until I went to the brewery's website I was unaware that this was a seasonal beer in Dark Horse's 'Holiday Stout Series', a series which has some intriguing beers in it. I am ok with sparse packaging, especially with what I can only assume is a newer brewery.

Keeping with the bland aesthetic, the beer itself turned out to be little more than your standard oatmeal stout. I was expecting more because of the fact that it is seasonal, which usually gives the brewmaster a little more freedom to go 'crazy' with the recipe, but this beer wasn't bad by any stretch. In fact I would say it was my expectations alone that made me slightly disappointed with this beer. There is nothing wrong with being a typical oatmeal stout, if you are a fan of the style, but sometimes you expect a little extra. It just seemed to me that this beer trotted out the 'usual suspects' as far as ingredients go.

At the risk of sounding like a high school guidance counselor- this beer shows 'potential' for the rest of the holiday stout series that Dark Horse is doing, as it would have been great with a little tinkering with the recipe, which the other beers seem to showcase. I personally plan on 'researching' the 'Fore Smoked Stout' sometime this winter. Ok, I'll stop with the quotations now.

Musical Pairing: Badfinger- No Dice (Good record, but man I thought some of these songs were the Beatles when I was a kid!)

6 comments:

sonnett said...

Would love to try this one. I enjoy oatmeal stouts.

Matt said...

I do too! I hope I am not becoming jaded with them or something. That would be fucking awful!

Amateur said...

So you've bought Fallout3 I assume. How is it? Oblivion with guns?

Matt said...

It is similar to that, but better in my opinion. The combat is better, perks are carried over from the old ones and the storyline is great. Its not as large of a map as Oblivion was but it is a lot more condensed. Great game, you should do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Anonymous said...

Tres Blueberry Stout by Dark Horse is superb. There, I sound like a yuppy. Try it or your eyes will fall out.

z,n3lq said...

give me your vault tec bobbler