Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

landis · 07-08-2008, 01:58 PM

I've had variants of Chocolate, Oatmeal, Coffee, and Stout floating around in my head recently thinking about my next brew, and last night I got the email from Stone about the 12th anniversary beer.

I'll have to take a trip this week and find some.

Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Our Anniversary Ale this year stems from 2 pilot beers that were brewed by members of Team Stone. The first was Jeremy Moynier’s incredibly delicious Oatmeal Stout, and the second was Jake Ratzke’s amazing homebrewed Imperial Stout that had authentic Oaxacan chocolate added to the boil. We loved both beers so much that we decided to combine the recipes to make this year’s Anniversary offering: Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. This beer pours deep black with a rich brown head of foam. The aroma is dominated by roast malt and cocoa. Upon tasting, the cocoa (we used unsweetened, unprocessed cacao sourced through our friends at Chuao Chocolatier) really comes through with a deep chocolate flavor and a long lasting bitter finish. The roasted grains used add coffee and licorice accents. It is a thick beer, but not sweet, with the addition of oatmeal in the mash providing a rich, silky mouthfeel that adds to the creamy texture.

Alc/Vol.
9.2%

Starting Gravity:
23.5 plato

Release Date:
July 7th, 2008

Available in:
22oz Bottles & Limited Draft

Grain Bill:
Pale Malt, Carmel Malts, Oats, Black Malt, Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt and
100% Pure Cocoa

Hop Varieties:
Ahtanum, Summit, Willamette and Galena

eschatz · 07-08-2008, 04:33 PM

WOW! i could never imagine Stone making a beer like this. although it is over the top!

**BrewBrain** · 07-11-2008, 02:46 AM

That looks very good. I hope I can get it up north in BevMo!

Brewsmith · 07-11-2008, 03:30 AM

I need to pick up a few bottles of this. I still have a few bottles of 10th and 11th anniversary.

landis · 07-11-2008, 12:38 PM

I found one last night "on sale" at the store for $5.99. Should be good, but there was some sticker shock at $5.99. I guess these are special occasion beers - I think I'll stick to homebrew for my every day drinking.

**BrewBrain** · 07-12-2008, 01:54 AM

Woohoo! BevMo came through. Got one chillin' right now.

Wrathbone · 07-13-2008, 08:49 PM

Had it on tap last night at the Library Alehouse here in Santa Monica, at $7.00 a pint.

Very interesting, the bitterness definitely shows through. Not the kind of beer I'd want to eat with, so I only had one. I wasn't blown away by how incredible it was or anything, but it was very interesting and I'm happy I found it.

brewt00l · 07-13-2008, 09:34 PM

I have a glass of it in my hand at this very moment.

An aggressive pour yielded only a modest amount of foam that quickly dissolved to a ring of tiny bubbles around the glass. Dark enough to absorb surrounding light sources w/ deep ruby highlights. The aroma is all bittersweet chocolate, coffee and dark burnt sugar/treacle. Flavors of dark bittersweet chocolate, espresso & light molasses. Finishes with slight bit of chalky dryness that stays with you for a few moments. Mouthfeel is moderate to moderately thick, lacking the silky feel of a typical oatmeal stout. Overall it lives up to the bittersweet chocolate part of the description but falls a little short on the oatmeal. The ABV is not present in either the aroma or flavor. I wasn't entirely a fan of the after-taste/finish.

landis · 07-14-2008, 04:01 PM

I finally got around to drinking mine last night - it was alright, but I don't really plan on purchasing any more. Maybe just one to let sit for a few years just to see if that helps it mellow out.

The initial taste was a pleasant coffee / chocolate flavor, but didn't have the mouthfeel I thought it would. The aftertaste left a burnt alcohol flavor that didn't sit well. I found myself drinking more just to get that flavor out of my mouth.

Now the next morning and there is still a residual taste.

Overall not a terrible beer, but I was hoping for a bit more.

carnevoodoo · 07-15-2008, 05:29 AM

I think this is a very solid beer. I would say that 6 months from now it will be better and in 2 years it'll probably be perfect. It is very hot in the finish when it warms up. Give it time. Put one away and try it later. For reals.