Introducing Contestants – Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

My first thought when I took a sip of Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout was “Guinness…,” and as the sip went down my throat I added “…now with oatmeal!”  Drinking more of it makes the differences between SSOS and Guinness a little clearer, but I still have hints of that initial impression.  Like Guinness, it is a little on the light side for a stout, particularly for one in this tournament.  I can faintly see my hand on the other side of the glass and the bottom of it is distinctly brown, rather than pitch black.  The head is bright white and much bubblier than its Irish cousin; nonetheless the mouthfeel is similarly light.  This has a pretty crazy high rating on BeerAdvocate, but I just don’t see it.  SSOS has a very light mouthfeel to it, and it’s gone except for traces of bitterness once you swallow.   It’s also a very low ABV for a stout, clocking in at just 5% (and they annoyingly didn’t list that on the bottle).  

This one came highly recommended from some decently knowledgeable people, which is why I opted to give it a try – it also adds a splash of international flair to the tourney, being from Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery at Tadcaster in Yorkshire, England (note – link goes to the American distributor’s page for the brewery because it is much better than the actual site).  I know it shouldn’t matter, but honestly the bottle looked so boring to me that I was never really inspired to pick it up before.

I don’t mean to sound all negative – it’s a decent beer.  I’m just not sure it’s up to snuff for the tourney.  I’ll be utterly shocked if it manages to score more than one or two votes in its first round matchup with Thirsty Dog’s Siberian Night.  So far the imports are doing nothing to disavow me of the opinion that American Craft breweries are the best in the world. More to the point about the taste, I barely get any of the oatmeal taste the title promises. 

Oh well.  It’s not a bad beer and it’s relatively cheap, so you can kick back with friends and drink a few – perhaps quite a few because of the low ABV.  It’s not going to make any noise in the May Day tourney though.  A certain visitor from Ohio (Thirsty Dog’s Siberian Night) is going to make sure of that.

As for the brewery itself, it appears to have a decent selection of styles, but none of them really show the experimentation and pizazz that you’ll find in some of the other breweries that I’ve profiled (or will soon profile), such as Southern Tier, Allagash, Brooklyn, Hoppin Frog, Great Divide… well, just about any of them really. 

Ah well.  It’ll take up its spot diligently.  I predict a first round loss.  Sorry Tadcaster – it’s not bad, it’s just not at the same level as a lot of the others here, its BeerAdvocate rating notwithstanding.

Duff out.