Friday, November 6, 2009

Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout (5%)

Seeing Stass ruined our first beer tasting note with a lager, I decided to swing the pendulum back towards ales. I have an interest in this brewer coming from my US trip, where I drank one of their other beers at the bottom of Grand Canyon, and really stood out compared to the other beers accessible to us in the states overall. 
From a 550ml rustic looking bottle (which correlates well with a rustic taste), this traditional english style beer poured very dark with a nice white collar. It had a fairly regular stout taste with roasted notes, but the oatmeal really give the body a creamy texture that doesn't make the malt taste too smoky in aftertaste. This is also due to what I believe to be a slight chemical/metallic finishing taste, probably from the water used that in a way cleanses the tongue as it falls to your stomach with a not too heavy thud (well, for me anyway). This was sippingly enjoyed over an hour while enjoying a few games of Wii Mario Kart with Stass.

Coincidently, I had a Matilda Bay Dogbolter and Tooheys Old comparision tasting before this beer. If I was to try and be unbiased, I would say that the Dogbolter had much more body and taste than the Old, but I can see now why people tend to go back to a beer they know. There is that sense of nostalgia and reliability that even beer can have attached to it. Still, Old is a sessional beer for mine, whereas the Dogbolter was not so much.

Beef

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