Samuel Smith

For a beer as dark as this Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout is really quite well balanced. Pouring this into a pint glass the first thing you'll notice is that this beer is pretty much pitch black. As the glass fills up you'll see the head go from a dark brown color to an off white creme color. You'd be forgiven if you expected this beer to be a bitter mess of chalky or burnt malted grain. Sam Smith's beers are usually a pleasantly mellow surprise, and this is no exception. Despite being darker than dark, this beer has a pretty mellow flavor profile. You will notice the bitter component stand out a bit, but that's just part of being a Stout. Looking past the bitterness you'll notice a faintly sweet caramel note and hints of dark chocolate. All in all, this is a pleasant dark beer. Definitely a Stout you can drink before the thermometer falls below sixty. This is worth picking up but it may bore the more adventurous dark beer drinkers.

I'm still a little unclear as to why I was so excited about Samuel Smith's new organic fruit ale series. I'm not particularly crazy about fruit beers, though there are a few that I've really enjoyed. Also, of all the fruits to choose from, I'm not confident that apple, strawberry or cherry are particularly good flavors for beer. That certainly doesn't mean an apple or cherry beer couldn't be exceptionally well done, but it just seems like the deck is stacked against them. So for some reason, despite all of my reservations, I did pick up a bottle of the Organic Strawberry Ale a few weeks back. I thought now might be a good time to finally open it up since it's now mid-August and strawberries aren't something I'll be eager to drink after Halloween when the temperature drops into the twenties. Here's what I thought about this beer...