Velvet Merkin
Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Oatmeal Regular|
Score
7.84
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Bottle from MoM. It pours black with a small tan head. The aroma is big fresh bourbon character upfront and throughout, vanilla, toffee, fudge, roasted malt, coffee grounds, chocolate cake, cookie dough and some dark fruits. The taste is dry, bitter, rich roasted malt, bitter - sweet, earthy, plenty of coffee action, coffee cake, chocolate, nut, bourbon soaked oak, vanilla fudge, touch of umami, liquorice, dried fruits, fruit cake and just a vague hint of alcohol with a smooth, bourbon oak finish. Medium - fulsome body and fine, massaging carbonation. Really nice balance. Hasn't lost much since 2018 anyhow. Fun stuff.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle from The Davis Beer Shoppe. Pours dark brn/blk with a transient beige/tan head. Aroma of near toasty malt with a touch of leather. Bourbon notes. Med plus body - carbonation slightly fizzy. Flavor is bourbon and just a bit musty wood with a flavor I generally take to be from oats. Not very sweet, heat is detectable, but not obnoxious, and the bourbon heat and oak tend to stand in for bitter to stave off the malt. Tasty brew.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
Capped bottle from The Davis Beer Shoppe. Pours dark brown with orange glints and a huge frothy darkish tan head. Aroma of bourbon and roasty, not quite toasty, malt with chocolate notes. Med plus body. Flavor of bourbon, chocolate, roasty malt, and some vanilla, lactose and old wood notes. Milky, but not all that sweet. Far from dry tho. Good flavor.
bb (18428) reviewed Velvet Merkin (2018) from Firestone Walker Brewing 4 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle. Black beer with a brown head. Bourbon and chocolate aroma. Bourbon and chocolate flavor with malt and light caramel. Medium bodied. Bourbon and caramel linger with chocolate and malt.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Bottle. Black beer with a brown head. Rich malt and roast aroma with bourbon. Roast and chocolate flavor with bourbon. Medium bodied. Bourbon and chocolate linger with caramel and lactose.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 7.5
Black body with thick beige head. Full roasty aroma. Malt taste, full with a little bit of barrel. Creamy not too sweet finish.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle (recolte 2018, #006): Literally black, small up to no tanned head, solid sweet- but not too sweet - bitter aroma of roasted malt, raisins and traces of smoky wood, the inevitable vanilla spots are hard to detect; moderate sweet-bitter flavour, full bodied but not overly soft; drier and thinner (!) bitter-sweet finish repeating all in all the aromas from the nose. Disappointing, regarding its price...
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Olmost black with a brown head - Dark malt and wood aroma - Dark malt body with wood vanilla flavour - The dark malt with wood flavours goes into the finish - This was good
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 9.5
Firestone Walker's 2019 edition of Velvet Merkin, this time apparently dubbed a 'milk stout' instead of the classic 'oatmeal stout', so I suspect this edition differed from others by the use of lactose (sadly there is no ingredients list)... Part of a pack of three vintage Velvet Merkins and apparently quite limited, with only 475 cases produced in total. Thinnish but firm and dense, pale yellowish beige, irregularly lacing head, slowly showing gaps here and there but retaining well over a clear, black beer showing a deep wine red glow under bright light. Aroma of latte macchiato, Nutroma coffee cream, cappuccino, toasted bread on the edge of becoming blackened, burnt currants, clear but not overpowering bourbon, old wooden barrels including this typical vanilla-ish aspect of oak, bitter black chocolate, burnt muscovado sugar, cinnamon muffins, dried blueberries, praliné, hints of shoe polish, bayleaf, whipped cream, tea, molasses. Sweet onset (though nowhere cloying), quite spritzy carb but in a very refined and quiet way, burnt raisins, fig jam and candied pear chips, rounded body, oily at the edges but this smooth oiliness does get 'pierced' a bit by the carbonation; deeply caramelly maltiness with bitter-chocolatey core, muffin- and toast-like aspects, bittersweet with indeed a creaminess to it that can be ascribed to lactose - the combination of which with the coffeeish roasty bitterness in the end making for a very 'creamy coffee'-like effect, as in latte macchiato or actual coffee cream; praliné-like aspect too, like in some Belgian chocolates. Slight spicy notes creep in near the end (pepper, cinnamon), when the bourbon performs its show - connecting very well with the bittersweet malt character actually, as if blending in seamlessly; woody tannins add some dryness, and so does the bourbon itself, becoming slightly peppery and notably warming in the end, without revealing itself all too clearly (as is often the case in bourbon barrel aged beers these days). This lovely beer shows a certain amount of restraint - especially for a classic Californian brewery - and performs the balancing act of malt bittersweetness and bourbon booziness perfectly, with a beautiful 'liquid coffee bonbon' feel to it. Absolutely beautiful stout because of not trying to be overly exuberant - this is great class, along with the classy label in the familiar Firestone Walker house style. I wonder why this beer was not on the site yet after almost two years - maybe people overlooked the milk in milk stout and just assumed that this was the classic (oatmeal) Velvet Merkin? Whatever the case, this 2019 edition is, or should I say was, a showpiece of advanced brewing art for me.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Ever since Firestone Walker fell into the clutches of Belgian Moortgat (Duvel), it seems their beers have silently and slowly become more available here in Belgium - and even if I bought this one from a Dutch webshop, I guess Moortgat's ownership still has something to do with that, something I can have nothing against. This is their classic Velvet Merkin, a bourbon barrel aged oatmeal stout, from 2018, so two years old at this point; apparently the first editions were a bit stronger in alcohol volume, which I assume explains why this vintage has its own entry here. Quite densely mousy, even creamy, yellowish-beige, thickly dented-lacing, slightly crackling but very stable, even if eventually 'breaking' head on a blackish (but actually very, very dark bronze) beer with crystal clear ruddy-mahogany edge till the end (this beer has clearly been filtered, or worse...). Pleasantly 'warming' bouquet of cappuccino, charred horse steak, bitter black chocolate, beef broth, old furniture, roasted pecan nuts, burnt toast, some glowing charcoal even, cold black coffee, dry raisin bread, leather, tar, moist nutmeg, dried fig, vanilla-scenting oak wood, hard caramel, oatmeal pancakes like both my grandmothers used to bake them, something unsugared chewing gum-like, dried juniper berries, blood, old brownies, mocha ice cream - and then, subtly lurking around in the background but still detectable to the experienced nose, that typical 'cooked cloth'-like aspect pointing at pasteurization (so my suspicion at the time of looking at its transparent edges, proves right). Rounded onset, sweetish but nowhere cloying and balanced with a fruity-sourish edge (quite obvious even but elegantly and 'neutrally' so) with hints of dried fig, blackberry and blueberry, quite spritzy carbonation for a barrel aged vintage beer - accentuating the sour aspect and even hindering drinkability a little bit; still full, very smooth (oat!) mouthfeel, a lovely combo of 'fondant' chocolate, toasted pecan nuts and burnt brown bread, bittersweet but remaining restrained in its sweetness - it's more an abstract impression of softness provided by the oats in this case than actual sweetness. Full roasted bitterness in the end though nowhere too sharp or ashy, in fact very black coffee-like as it ought to be, with these dried fruit and burnt raisin aspects lingering about; woody tannins add further dryness, working well with that mouth-filling roasted bitterness and back-up hop bitterness, as well as a retronasal whiff of vanilla, enhanced by the bourbon, which otherwise behaves very well, providing a sweet-boozy element in the end without overtaking the beer (as is all too often the case these days). Long, warming but altogether gentle finish combining bittersweet bourbon with bittersweet roasted malts and wood, while a vague touch of liquorice lurks in the background. Oatmeal stout indeed, feeling thick enough for this ABV and delivering the smoothness one expects from the style - though it must be said, the somewhat pungent carbonation does reduce this effect a bit. This overcarbonation, for this kind of beer at least, is the only thing that bothered me a bit; otherwise this is a well-made American style strong stout, packed with all the classic flavours one expects from the genre and even coming across as a tad old-fashioned, due to its roasted bitter, coffee-like character. More or less exemplary in its category, with the bourbon barrel aspect having been applied rather gently; not the greatest highlight in American style barrel aged stouts I ever had, however, so I'm still wondering if this was really worth its rather hefty price tag. I think leaving it unfiltered and unpasteurized would already be a big step in the right direction (compare with BCBS now and before!)...