Name: Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout

Brewer: Samuel Smith Old Brewery

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Cellared On: July 7th, 2008

Original Tasting: July 8th, 2008

My first Oatmeal Stout in a long time, and damn, is this a good one. It pours very dark with a beautiful creamy head. I can taste the oatmeal, along with a bit of a chocolate as it goes down. It’s very smooth and sweet, I swear I’m getting hints of brown sugar. No bitterness at all. I feel like I could drink this for breakfast.

Online tasters report much the same feeling as my experience, but also detected roasted malts, coffee, and toffee

Six Month Tasting: January 18th, 2008

The smells and carbonation are still there, but that’s about it. The wonderful creaminess and oatmeal/chocolate flavors have just faded away. There’s still a bit of nice toasted malt in the taste, but it gets totally overwhelmed by an oxidized cardboard/paper like flavor. Very disappointing, but probably not too surprising.

One Year Tasting: August 28th, 2008

There’s not too much left of this beer at all. It’s incredibly mild - what roasted flavor is left is over in a snap. There’s ton’s of oxidative damage here, but that hasn’t become any more prevalent than it was six months ago.

I think I can safely say that you shouldn’t bother aging this brew.

Cellar Outlook: Beer Advocate’s cellar forum users have not had much luck with Oatmeal Stout’s in the cellar. The future may be grim for my poor oatmeal stouts.

Six Month Outlook Notes:  Grim. Bleak. I can’t see anything good coming of further aging, but I’ll keep trying.

One Year Outlook Notes: Pretty much beyond hope.

Next Tasting: July 2009