Beer Tasting - Oatmeal Coffee Stout

It's been three weeks since I bottled the "Breakfast of Champions" Oatmeal Coffee Stout, so I feel comfortable doing a beer tasting with the finished product. As I mentioned in the brewing blog for this beer, my numbers came out exactly as planned, so hopefully it tastes similar to what I was envisioning. I've had a couple bottles over the past week as well as shared a few with friends, but I haven't taken the time to be analytical.

I'll be following the five category format from beeradvocate.com: Appearance, Smell, Taste, Mouthfeel and Overall.  

Appearance: Pours pitch black, perfect colour for Oatmeal Stout. The head is thick and frothy, but it dissipates a bit too fast. Wondering if adding the whole beans post boil, during fermentation hurt the head retention.

Smell: Roasty coffee, close to dark espresso notes. To me it smells like it was infused with actual coffee beans, rather than brewed coffee or espresso, which makes it smell slightly stale to me, but still pretty good.

Taste: Huge coffee flavour, bittersweet dark chocolate, and a slight sourness on the finish, which I think comes from the oatmeal. It starts sweets, cuts to bitter quickly and finishes a bit sour, which is an interesting taste sequence. If there ever was a brunch beer, this is what I'd choose to drink. Who am I kidding, I'm sticking to ceasers for brunch.

Mouthfeel: Extremely smooth and creamy, thick bodied.

Overall: The brewing process for this beer went as well as I could have hoped for. All my numbers came out exactly as planned, which makes this an easier beer to analyze as it should be easily replicated. In the future I might play around with how the coffee is added, as I think the whole beans killed the head retention, but the velvety mouthfeel typical of an Oatmeal Stout is still prevalent. I think I'll also try brewing the exact same recipe, but forgo adding any sort of coffee and compare the end result. The slight sour aftertaste lingers a bit too much, but I'm not sure if that was caused by something in my recipe, brewing process, or an exclusive issue with this individual bottle.

Thanks for reading!