From tap at Solana Beach. Pours pitch black with a lacing tan head. Aroma is hard roasted malt and mild coffeeish. Flavour follows this closely with a nice acidic roasted malt touch and a light hoppy. Bitter and roasted malt finish. Nice and lingering.

Draught Thick, very dense greyish head; black beer with red-brownish shine. Very roasted and very obvious oatmeal,even in the nose?! Very roasted, quite nutty (rather than coffee), more oats & grains in the flavour. Very smooth, creamy texture. A stout that is very much tuned by the oats - not bad.

(Draft: Ballast Point Brewing Co. in San Diego, CA) Ballast Point serves their samples in these tall, thin glasses that make it tough to rate, so I finally remembered to bring my own 8 ounce glass and transfer the sample into my glass. I was nearly giddy with excitement when I saw this was on tap, but as the guy was pouring this beer, I noticed it wasn’t very dark and I was thinking WTF? He must have noticed my furrowed brow because he immediately issued a disclaimer, saying they accidentally left out the black malt. Oops! So this beer isn’t very dark and not very roasty. It’s still a nice beer though. It has a strong coffee nose, and the flavor follows suit. The coffee flavor is strong but not overwhelmingly so, as the moderately sweet maltiness has good presence. It’s only mildly bitter. It has a decent mouthfeel, but is certainly less full than other oatmeal stouts. The color is medium brown, which without the black malt, isn’t surprising. The tan head holds up well. In the end, this comes out more like a Coffee Oatmeal Brown, and while disappointing, is still a pretty tasty brew. However, this clearly isn’t the beer it’s intended to be, and we’ll have to wait for the next batch to try the real deal.

Sample at Stone. Pours nearly black with a medium and somewhat foamy tan head that diminishes slowly. Small patches of lacing sliding down the glass. Coffee bean and malt aroma. Medium-bodied with a roasted character and flavors of coffee and malt, as well as touches of dark fruit. Light hops are present at times as well. The finish is roasty with a coffee aftertaste. Straightforward yet above average overall.

This stout pours with a deep red body topped by a thin head with some lacing. The aroma is full of roasted coffee, actually a very good coffee. The flavor is also full of coffee, as well as, malt, but it loses something. Pretty weak for a stout and a little watery.