While Irish stouts like Guinness are described as dry, for their burnt-coffee bitterness, most English-style stouts deliver a hint of sweetness. Within this sweet stouts category, smooth oatmeal stouts, brewed with unmalted oats and barley, have pride of place as the most delicious and drinkable. And among oatmeal stouts, Samuel Smith’s brew has come to be the world benchmark. The Old Brewery at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire is one of the few artisanal breweries to survive the dark days of industrial dominance of brewing in Britain, and the beer’s fermentation still takes place in traditional Yorkshire Squares, slate-lined box-shaped vats.

The beer looks like black coffee, topped with a pillowy head of foam. On first sip, flavors of dusty chocolate, dried cherries and pumpernickel bread are rich and layered. Silky texture and a whisper of malty sweetness soften the beer’s impact. Pair it with both savory dark meat dishes, like traditional pot roast, and as well as chocolatey desserts. Or use it to make a memorable grown-up ice cream float.

Image, courtesy of Merchant Du Vin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under What to Drink, Wine & Spirits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Marnie Old on 3/11/08 in What to Drink, Wine & Spirits