Out of the Bottle: Sweet Oatmeal Stout

My Sweet/Oatmeal Stout hybrid is ready to go. This beer gets a bonus round, because I bottled both a regular and N/A version of it. This is a nice chance to see what kind of a difference removing the alcohol makes.

The beer itself is intentionally light, but not insubstantial in body. The regular beer's ABV barely cracks the 5.0% barrier. I'm not super happy with how the flavors blended to together. You can sense some sweetness from the milk sugar. It sits across the room from the roasted grains as an odd counterpoint. I definitely need to play with balance next time around. Bitterness is light and bolstered by the roasted grains. The nose has a touch of fruitiness to it.

The N/A version is very close. The roasted flavors are slightly more pronounced. There's less fruitiness in nose too. The rest is pretty much the same. This includes my questionable balance of lactose and roasted grains.

So, this definitely isn't the best beer I've ever brewed. The flavor balance was just too wonky (a technical term). However, I was pleased with how close the regular and N/A versions were to each other.

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