From a solar powered brewery in Boonville, CA comes Anderson Valleys Brewing’s Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout (5.8%, poured from a bottle at home)
Aroma and Appearance: Pours a dark brown with a bit of foam and the aroma is dominated by smokey oats.
Flavour: Starts with a smokey and creamy coffee flavour with the distinctive oatmeal stout texture and as you drink the earthy molasses, toffees and raisins start to appear.
Overall Impression: This is a good one, nice quality oatmeal stout with some surprise flavour that arises from the malts, but not enough for me to crave it again immediately.
Rating: I would rate about 7/10, very good but not on my buy again now list. Nothing wrong with it, would order a pint if it was on tap to revisit.
Food Pairing: I paired it with smoked gouda and to be honest, this mellowed, smoothed and balanced the beer into a higher category and it highlighted the smoke in the cheese nicely. Great pairing for sure!
West Coast Beer Geek 