Beer Review: Ninkasi Oatis Oatmeal Stout

Price: $4.49 (for 22oz) plus bottle deposit

Brewery: Ninkasi, Eugene, Oregon

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Color: Black, opaque. Very dark

Aroma:  mixture of Roasted grains and Oatmeal. 

Body: Medium. 

Stomach Aspect: Not bad. Halfway through my pint and I can feel a little fullness aspect.  This is a two to three pint only type of brew. 

Head: When poured it maxed at 1/4".  A minute after being poured it has almost vanished. 

Head Retention: not much.  No traces on the glass from the previous drink. 

Taste: Very little taste on the front of the tongue, but move the brew to the middle of your tongue and you're quickly introduced with a nice grain bitterness.  Roasted flavors present themselves, as do the aroma of Roasted grains.  You don't get any hop flavor until you move the brew to the back of your tongue and when you swallow, your given the hop bitterness, with a slight hint of Oatmeal. If you give yourself two to three minutes of time between drinks you start to get an interesting aspect or flavor. The bitterness from the Hops and roasted grains increases, taking the flavor aspect of the beer in an interesting direction.  

Conclusion:  While I have had Ninkasi brews before, this is the first time I have had one of their dark brews.  You can almost tell that the brewers at Ninkasi had to refrain from using their usual  amount of hops. You're waiting for the onslaught of hops bitterness, but it never arrives.  After getting around that aspect, the brew is very pretty, nicely colored, pretty good head, good flavor.  The one thing I can't noticed right away is the Oatmeal.  This is an Oatmeal Stout, and it seems the Oatmeal is shy and won't come out.  The Roasted grains are very present (as they should be in a Stout), with a nice balance of Hops.  The one thing that is interesting is the medium body in this brew. With an ABV of 7.1% I would think (almost expect) the body to be heavy, and give you that "chewy" aspect that  Stouts are known for (and why most people shy away from them).  There's nothing wrong with this brew, except maybe the Oatmeal is a bit weak.  Now I've had Oatmeal Stouts where all you taste is the Oatmeal (imagine drinking a bowl Quaker Oats) and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and you tend to stay away from this type of brew.  While I think this brew could improve, overall it's not bad at all. I do think that the head in this brew is a bit weak, maybe with some American Dextrin grains this area could improve.

Public Aspect: If you bring this to an event, or introduce people to this brew you won't be ashamed, and you might be amazed at how a person might respond to this brew. However, if you're trying to introduce someone to a traditional Ninkasi brew, you may want to skip this one and hand them a Ninkasi Total Domination IPA.