Oatmeal Stout (Portsmouth Brewery)

This is a pretty special beer for me. Not only is this a great beer that I've been looking forward to cracking open and enjoying, but it also marks my 100th beer review. Not bad, it only took a little over four months to accomplish the feat. I chose Portsmouth Brewery's Oatmeal Stout for number 100 because its one of my favorite styles from one of my favorite brewpubs here in New England. 

From the Portsmouth Brewery site:

"The addition of 55 pounds of flaked oats add a "smooth" texture to this big black ale. Lots of chocolate roasty flavors tightened up by an abundance of Pacific Northwest hops."

Pours dark, very dark. This is pretty much inky black in color with a rather slight coffee-colored head that gradually develops to about an inch in thickness before slinking away to a ring around the top of the glass. Nothing like a big glass of rich, creamy black stout.

No surprise that this one has big roasted malt smell emanating from it. Wow. Along with strong roasty smell comes some cocoa and coffee notes. Some more whiffs bring about creamy sweetness and some very faint hoppiness. Lots of great smells with this beer. 

First big sip and we've definitely got a winner. Creamy smooth texture with the bitterness of the dark malts is accompanied by mocha tastes and some nice sweetness. Very well balanced and very delicious. Everything comes together perfectly with this stout. Yet another great beer from the Portsmouth Brewery. 

Tod Mot, the brewmaster at Portsmouth Brewery, can do no wrong. Besides this great oatmeal stout, the Portsmouth Brewery is going to be re-releasing their Kate the Great imperial stout soon. This is much to the delight of beer fans everywhere. Kate the Great was recently named best beer in the US by BeerAdvocate and the very limited amount (limit 2 bottles per person) being unleashed upon the public on June 24th (at 2:27pm to be exact) is sure to go extremely quickly. I'm still not sure if I am going to take the day off of work to stand in line or not...its a tough call.

BEER FACTS

Name: Oatmeal Stout

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Brewery: The Portsmouth Brewery

Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA

Container: 22 oz. bottle

Malts: ?

Hops: ?

ABV: 6%

IBUs: ?