Velvet Merkin (2019) Milk Stout
(Batch of Velvet Merkin)
Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Oatmeal Regular|
Score
7.52
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
35,5 cl bottle @ home Blind tasting: 2017, 2018 and 2019. My guess on this was 2018. Aroma has coffee, bourbon and vanilla. Also oat. Feels rather rich. Alcohol is present. Flavour has artifical candy, bourbon, vanilla tones, some licorice. Pleasant but perhaps even a bit boring. Alcohol almost not present at all on first sip but occurs afterwards. Smooth. 9-4-8-4-40.
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.
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 - 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.