Mendocino Oatmeal Stout

      This will be the last of the Winter beers for this year.  It sure has been taxing for me to have to plow through these 44, for the most part, Delicious beers.  But, before we get to the final lists, one last beer to go.  This Oatmeal Stout is from the people at Mendocino, who are much warmer than me.  This stuff pours out impressively black, even the head is really dark.  The nose is a bit weak with caramel and mocha.  But the flavor is rich with mocha which turns into a powerful coffee flavor.  Tis rich and creamy with nice body, and packed with flavor.  I like this beer quite a bit although its fairly simple.  But that's not always a bad thing.  A very solid stout that is well deserving of a place on the nice list.  On to the lists.

Highland Oatmeal Porter

Next up, another North Carolina beer, this one from the Highland Brewing Company in Asheville. Highland Oatmeal Porter pours out a light to medium brown. This beer has a really malty nose with a smoky mocha note and hop tones permeating the background. Now for the important part, the drinking. Shockingly heavy hop bitterness throughout, becoming even stronger on the finish. I'm straining to search out other flavors here. Yeah there's some mocha and caramel, but they are swallowed by hops. Usually this is the type of beer that would have a rich creamy fullness, I don't get that. It Seems weak on the body. Maybe I'm going through the change and my taste is off, but I find this wildly unbalanced. All the yummy goodness that is here is locked away in a prison of hops. And this is a style where it's supposed to be all about the malts. Have these people gone mad? Why yes they have. Note: I don't read labels till after I do tasting notes. Here is the whole text from the label. This is the most infamous pack of lies ever conceived by man. " A unique Highland creation, this robust( is not) beer is black in color,( medium brown, you can see right through it, the picture above isn't a good judge) very malty ( I can barely tell malt was used) with hints of chocolate-roasted flavor ( o.k. there are hints) and a well balanced hop character. This last phrase is the most stunning lie of all, there is zero balance. I really wanted to like this beer, porters are one of my favorite styles, but they got this one wrong. I hope Highland has better, we'll see as I have several of their other beers in the fridge.
P.S. I tried it with some glazed ham and it was not as bad.

http://highlandbrewing.com/