United Nations of Beer

Trafalgar Smoked Oatmeal stout

by Sam Corbeil
(Beer Delegate, ON, Canada)

Great Beer Shirts!

As the warmth and sun of the Summer quickly fades and the leaves and the mercury begin to fall, we look to bigger, darker, heavier beers to warm us sustain us through the colder temperatures. And so it was last year, when on my weekly Friday stop at the LCBO I saw Trafalgar Ales & Mead's newest offering, the extra large 650ml bottle of Trafalgar Smoked Oatmeal stout staring back at me from the shelf, I figured here's a beer that should help me kick off the new Fall season in proper fashion.

At 5% ABV, it wasn't big in the alcohol sense of the term, but with it's more than generous 650ml bottle, it was certainly big in stature. And as it was a stout it was definitely going to be dark and heavy.

The silver label was large and the word "Smoked" jumped right off it and enticed me, giving me hope for a big, campfire-like flavour to go along with the usual suspects you'd find in a stout.

As soon as I got home, I tore off the silver foil wrapped tightly around the crown and popped off the cap. Tipping the beer into my tilted glass, it poured out dark and slowly. And as I pulled the bottle away from the glass, it left an airy tan head that quickly faded into opaque liquid below. I pulled the glass to my nose and found a strong coffee aroma.

On first sip I could feel the silky smoothness imparted from the oatmeal in the brew. This was going to be an easy beer to drink.

Right away the flavour of roasted coffee was still there as was the chocolatiness you'd expect to find in a stout, but I was still waiting for the smoke to come through. It finally showed itself on the finish, but it was very slight and not nearly as strong as I was hoping for.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, the beer was still finely balanced in its flavours, but I was just hoping for something.... let's say, a little more extreme.

I slowly sipped away at the beer for quite some time as it was rather large, but I never got overwhelmed with the flavours. Next time out though I might be more generous and share this beer with a friend.