Pontifications and Other Mindless Banter

May 8, 2006

Beer Review: Matthew Maynard: Kitt Peak Oatmeal Stout

Filed under: Geek-Fu,Local,Reviews — Jeremy @ 1:29:17 AM

From the "A-Beer-so-Dark, the Tucson-Dark-Sky-Society-can-appreciate-it" Department

The-Roommate-Formerly-Known-as-Matthew-Maynard deliverd his latest home brew creation:
Kitt Peak Oatmeal Stout

Behold, Kitt Peak National Observatory in all her glory!

You may remember my orignal Beer Review, I reference the Landscape of Beer:

• Color
  As I suggest by the department title, this beer is BLACK! Once upon a time, a female friend of mine (She’s now married to another former roommate) said the following: Jeremy likes his beer, like he likes his coffee… Black!. It might have been the other way around, cause I was drinking cofee at the time. Anyways, she was right.
  I also have another saying, Its not Beer if you can see through it.
  Anyways, this is a dark beer. I held it up to the light, and there was no translucence. EXCELLTENT RATING!
• Clarity
  Its black, and there was little sediment in the bottle, after I poured it. But not much. Otherwise, pretty good!
  Additionally, as if this first tasting there was no residue left at the bottom of the glass.
• Aroma
  It smells like an Ale. Very disdinct fruity flavor, almost chocolately.
• Flavor
  Great Flavor. While it is a bit weak (for my tastes) for an Oatmeal Stout, it is distinctive, and not too overpowering. (It has a better flavor at just slightly below room temperature; when chilled, a lot of the delightful parts of the beer’s palette are lost.
• Carbonation
  I’ve never seen a beer “Fizz” before. But it was nothing to worry about. Though there was a noticable lack of a good creamy foam. You might want to check your carbonation process, Matt.
• Palette
  This beer would be GREAT with a good cigar. Or a hearty meal. But I enjoied it with a light snack, and it was great as well. The thing with Stouts is that they can be good on their own (Cause they are quite filling) and with other fine foods. This Stout fits that mold.
• Overal
  On the Landscape of Beer (see above) I’d put this beer right above the midde line on the left hand side. Dark, not too bitter, and slightly sweet.

Great Work Matt. The Dark Sky Society would be proud.

Comments (4)

4 Comments »

1. So is a stout an ale? I always thought that I didn’t like Ales very much… but stouts are some of my favorites. I think I may be unfairly punishing a breed for a few bitter apples.

   so “dark beer” is…?

   And have you tried Old Rasputin? Once a year we try to get up the coast to this very fun town and usually stop off and have me one of these black beauties.

   Comment by Cisco — May 8, 2006 @ 9:46:27 AM

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2. I think there are a lot of varying definitions of what is a “Stout”.

   However, I take the majority of my Beer definitions from this Shockwave Demonstration

   Note: This is an oldschool swf.exe. Just run it, and when you are done, you will have to [ctrl][alt][delete] your way to halt the executable.
   And don’t mind the errors (if there are any) just click Continue, and you will be fine.

   My definition of a “stout” is only one of the “Dark Ale” family. (There is also Porters, and I think Draughts.)
   I found this article on Google, I found it pretty neat: Stouts and Porters

   Stouts are very dark, almost black beers, and feature a heavily roasted flavor profile. This is achieved by brewing with malt that has been kilned until it resembles burnt toast. Although not always considered ales by consumers, these beers use top fermenting yeasts and as such are members of the ale family. Porter was originally an English, specifically London dark beer style that was the drink of the masses long before lagers were conceived or modern ales were fashionable. In the heyday of Porter in London, during the eighteenth century , the term “Stout” was used to denote the strongest and weightiest beers in a brewers portfolio. The same relationship still holds true to this day, with porters generally being lighter in body and color than stouts. Stouts and Porters are enormously popular among US craft brewers and virtually all brewpubs and regional microbrewers produce one or both as year round brews.

   Comment by Jeremy — May 8, 2006 @ 9:57:11 AM

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3. And to answer your question, there are Dark Ales and Dark Lagers.
   There are more Dark Ales than Dark Lagers.
   A Stout is a Dark Ale.

   Comment by Jeremy — May 8, 2006 @ 10:14:51 AM

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4. B(rew)logging: Kit Peak Oatmeal Stout Completed & Reviewed…

   I love this hobby. We picked up the Kit Peak Oatmeal Stout kit from the local brewstore a month ago, and we bottled it about 2 weeks ago. It is as it is advertised, deep black and very stout. It has oats and wheat, along with some chocolate malt extrac…

   Trackback by MatthewMaynard.net — May 9, 2006 @ 10:16:59 PM

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