The Oatmeal Stout

Let’s travel down memory lane for a moment. Imagine that you’re a kid again. Everything was so carefree and simple. The days when time stood still you we were playing “king of the hill” on a brisk Fall day, and when we came back inside, Mom would be waiting with a hot, piping bowl of oatmeal. There was nothing more comforting than that warm, rich and smooth texture sliding down your throat as it stuck to the roof of your mouth. Even if those moments of childhood have long faded away, every once in a while we still harness a desperate longing for those experiences. After all, childhood is short. Adulthood is forever. And perhaps if you’re yearning for those types of memories, one might consider the Oatmeal Stout. It’s just like Mom used to make…..with beer! It’s a sweet, filling and full-bodied experience that has everything you love about a hot beverage. This eccentric stout features different blends of oatmeal brewed into beer that highlights an extraordinary amount of flavor and complexity. The Oatmeal Stout will most definitely hit the mark.

Unfortunately, this grand beverage wasn’t always held in high regard. The oatmeal stout started out, shall we say, in an “unpleasant” fashion. Forget about all of those fantastic imageries of remembering the good old days with mom for a moment, because traditionally, the oatmeal stout was a beverage intended for lactating mothers due to its nutritional values. During the medieval period in England, it was not uncommon for many breweries to add a substantial amount of oats into the brewing process. Thus, due to those high proportion additions (around 30 to 35%) of oats, the stout, although nutritious, unfortunately drew very astringent and bitter flavors which most people found to be quite repugnant. Heck, breweries couldn’t even give it away to thirsty Elizabethan sailors! Suffice it to say that the practice of adding oats into beer slowly died out and ultimately became extinct by the sixteenth century.

It was not until 1977 when the stout began to regain its popularity after Michael Jackson, (No, not the pop singer. Rather, the famous beer and whiskey author and journalist) had mentioned the defunct stout in his book The World Guide to Beer. It wasn’t long until the brewery Samuel Smith of Yorkshire took it upon themselves to reinvent and reproduce the oatmeal stout in 1980 at 5% ABV. The outcome was an amazing, complex beverage with silky textures and a bittersweet aftertaste. Soon other companies such as Young’s Brewery of London and the Anderson Valley Brewing Company of California followed suit and started producing their own version of the Oatmeal stout.

To produce, the Samuel Smith brand oatmeal stout includes a mixture of pale malt, flaked oats, crystal and chocolate malts, and roasted barley. The result is a sweet, smooth, superbly balanced, and full-bodied beer with a lasting impression leaving hints of bitter chocolate, dark fruits and molasses aromas and flavors. All in all, the Samuel Smith oatmeal stout is a beverage of superior drinkability, (and it’s good for you, too!).The trick is to never drink straight from the bottle. Otherwise, you might end up experiencing those dreaded bitter flavors mentioned above. Instead, slowly pour it into a pint glass, let it breathe for 2 to 3 minutes, and then slowly sip as you sit back, kick your feet up and let the good times roll.

Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout is also one of the most easily accessible brands to purchase. Grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market have them readily available in most of their beer and wine departments in the Atlanta area. This Whole Foods grocery store in particular carries them often:

Company: Whole Foods Market

Address: 5930 Roswell Road

Atlanta, GA 30329

Phone: 404.236.0810

Brand: Samuel Smith

Price: $3.99

Quantity: 1 Bottle

Bottle size: 18.7-ounce “Victorian Pint” bottle

Food pairings: Pizza, salad, Italian foods, steak, dark breads, steamed clams,

eggs Florentine, lobster, and shish kebabs

If you’re looking to go out on the town, you might want try the 5 Seasons Brewing Company’s version of the oatmeal stout in Sandy Springs on 5600 Roswell Road. They produce a wonderful Chocolate Imperial oatmeal stout.

What do you say? If you’re up for a unique palatal experience, give the oatmeal stout a go. Be a kid again….with a twist.

Welcome!

Greetings, everyone! Thank you very much for coming to visit my wonderful blogging site. I am your official Blog Master for this site. Heh-Heh. Okay, you can call me Mr. Tea. And, yes, I do love tea. It’s one of my favorite of all beverages.

*On a brief side note, It’s kind of interesting…I’m not a big fan of Mr. T, himself, although I did find him to be quite menacing as Clubber Lang in Rocky III. Furthermore, I never really ever watched The A-Team on television that much in my life. However, since this site is mostly about beverages and tea is one of my favorite kinds of beverage, I thought the named fit. It doesn’t matter. The name is not important. What’s important is the content of this blog site. So welcome!


(This is is a site about all beverages in general. Also, I would like to mention very briefly that this is my first time “blogging” on any kind of site whatsoever. So bear with me!)

Here, I hope to talk a lot about one of the most popular subjects in the world: the beverage. Is it one of the most popular subjects in the world? I don’t know. I may have just made that up. Whatever the case is, I think you’ll find that talking about beverages, (especially good beverages), is quite fun. Everything from creating unique cocktails to share with others, to unique tea blends, to keeping you up-to-date about everything beverage-related in the world. The main reason I created this blog was not to bore you to death with beverage information. I could go on and on about the types of Cognac distillations. By the way, the distillation must take place in a Charentais still. The first pass distillation is called the brouillis. The second distillation of Cognac is called the bonne chauffe when the brouillis is redistilled. NO! I won’t do that. I’m not going to bore you to death about the thousand different rules / regulations Scotland has in order for a Scotch Whisky to be called a Scotch Whisky. I won’t do it. First of all, and most importantly, Scotch whisky must be distilled in Scotland and must be matured in an excise warehouse in Scotland in oak casks and not exceeding 700 litres and maturation no less than 3 years......You see!? There I go again. You’ll find that, whilst reading my lovely blogs, sometimes I do, in fact, go off on tangents. Sometimes I may even go off topic. If I start randomly posting topics about Star Wars, please don’t be alarmed. I tend to do that. I’m quite schizophrenic that way. I like Star Wars. I’m a nerd. So what? Shut up. (Just kidding) Seriously, though, on and off you’ll see that sometimes here. You’ll just have to deal with it! I’m a wacky guy.

At any rate, the main purpose here is to talk about anything beverage related. For instance, one of my biggest passions is to come up with new cocktail recipes. However, I don’t want to be the only one posting. One of the reasons I created this is to see what kind of recipes other folks had and share them on this site. Now I know some of you may have visited the website www.drinksmixer.com.. It’s a really great site to see different variations of cocktail recipes and newly created recipes. Anybody is able to submit there own unique recipe(s). I’ve submitted several myself. Some of which I know for a fact are very, very good. Unfortunately, since drinksmixer.com most likely gets about 500 submissions a week, they probably only post about 5% of all submissions. It’s a bummer, I know. But, don’t fret, ol’ chap! That’s quite all right. This is one of the many reasons I started this. Any recipe that you submit is welcome….unless it can potentially kill someone. That is something that I particularly don’t want to be responsible for. Sorry. It’s just not good business. So, please don’t include anything in your creations that contain monosodium methyl arsenate. Preferably no notorious, poisonous metalloids whatsoever would be just fantastic.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, however. It doesn’t just have to be cocktails, either. There is so much to talk about! I love coming up with different tea concoctions. We will talk about tea, coffee, carbonated soft drinks, beer, etc., etc., etc.. Whatever you folks desire. Since I’m new at this, I welcome any kind of comments, suggestions, and ideas along the way.

So…where to start? There is so much to write about……Well, first of all, let me tell you a little bit about myself first. I am a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a major of Film Studies. Yes, you’ve read correctly: Film Studies. Do you want fries with that? Just kidding, (or am I?). Whatever, my degree matters very little at this point. Plus, you probably don’t really care anyway. Anyhow, I am now currently attending The Art Institute of Atlanta for an additional degree in Wine and Beverage Management. So far, the program has been really great! I’ve learned many, many new things and have redirected my passions into several different kinds of beverages; namely coffee, tea, and spirits. I am married, (Mrs. Tea) and have a beautiful daughter, (Little Miss Tea).

That’s about it. I think you’ll find this blog site to be not only entertaining, but quite informative, as well! It’s going to be a little bit tricky figuring out how to get things started, but please keep checking in and bear with me! It’s quite possible that I won’t cover a certain subject within a period of time. What I mean to say is that I probably won’t be on a subject of coffee for two weeks and then turn to tea for the next two weeks. I’m way to scatter-brained to be that organized. Trust me. Heh-heh.

I may cover a couple subjects of coffee one day, tea the next, post some cocktail recipes the same day with your responses and your recipes.

OR

I may cover tea one day, coffee the next, cocktail recipes the next two weeks and take your recipes and responses.

OR

I may cover cocktail recipes right away, write about beer……Okay, I’m babbling. I’m starting to “sound”, (even though you can’t physically hear me) like Steve Martin in The Jerk when he’s talking about how long each of his days were. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a look at this:

Okay, well that’s enough goofing off for now. Keep checking in and feel free to comment at any time!!!

Love,

Mr. Tea