8.3 - Sweaty Buffalos and the Buttes of the Great Northwest

I'm starting to feel like I don't drink anything local anymore.. I trade and have beer sent to me so goddamn much lately, it's sort of ridiculous..

Tallgrass Brewing - Buffalo Sweat

a 5.0% ABV 20 IBU Oatmeal Cream Stout.  Personally, I love the tallboy cans.. every brewery should have one!  So perfect for a beer transport vessel.  This pours a great rich, deep brown/black with the expected mocha head, very minimal despite a heavy pour.  Vanilla aroma with sweet nuttiness and mocha/milk chocolate (subdued).  Exactly what I would hope for from this style, although just a hair mellow.  It's a very light beer for such a potentially hearty style... I hate to say it, because it's so anti-stout.. this is almost a touch watery!  GASP! Smooth and creamy from the oatmeal with more vanilla and hints of coffee, chocolate and hazelnuts.  It has a bitter chocolate and faintly roasty finish that's on the dry edge with a touch of sweet. Goes down far too easy.. would be a great every day Stout

- - 7 Hops!

Deschutes - Black Butte Porter
a 5.2% ABV 30 IBU Porter that is surprisingly the brewery's flagship beer.  Yes, a Porter as the face of Deschutes..  incredibly unique for any brewery.  But this can live up to that status!  As black as a Stout with a fairly large tan head...  tons of roasty coffee with bitter black chocolate.  Nothing else on the nose, exactly how it should be.  It's smooth with a nice roasty, bitter bite.  There's more body than you'd expect from 5%, but not too much for the style.  The expectant chocolate, nutty, coffee flavors..  all in fantastic balance. Nothing overpowers anything else.. there's hints of vanilla and a faint smokiness on the finish.  This is just what a Porter should be.  No gimmicks, just damned good beer

- - 8 Hops!

Deschutes - Obsidian Stout

a 6.4% ABV 55 IBU Stout.  Similar to the Black Butte, this has a well-known reputation to uphold.  Another pitch black pour with a huge, Guinness-like fluffy head.  Thick, sweet, roasty malts come to the nose with heavy milk chocolate notes.. touches of vanilla, tobacco, oatmeal.  It's full and smells delicious, but doesn't have anything that overpowers (I'm sensing a trend with Deschutes' beers..)  As you would expect, it has a full body, a touch on the creamy side, but far less than an oatmeal stout.  Chocolate and coffee are at the forefront of the taste with vanilla and maple syrup lending some sweetness to round out the roasty bitterness.  There's oatmeal, molasses, some charcoal and tobacco.  For a simple 'regular' Stout.. this has a lot going on, but again, all remains well-balanced.  A simple underlying grassy hop flavor is tough to pick out, but easiest when this beer is colder.  Smooth and full on the finish with more roast/black coffee bitterness.  Tons of flavor for a non-imperial or anything extra Stout.

- - 8 Hops!