Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout vs. Homebrew

Someone I know at work mentioned a while ago that he was into homebrewing. I told him I'd love to try his beer, and he said ok, but I had to promise to give him my honest opinion of it.  Last week he gave me 3 bottles each of amber ale and oatmeal stout. Over the weekend, I decided to try the stout, but I wanted to have a solid comparison for it, so I bought a bottle of Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. It's one of the most popular Oatmeal Stouts at BeerAdvocate.

I poured a few ounces of each into tasting glasses. The color is very similar in both beers, dark with a reddish tinge where the light hits it. The Samuel Smith looks a little more opaque, but not much. It definitely has more of a head and as you can see in the picture, it was still there a couple of minutes later. The homebrew has very little head and it completely dissipated within a minute.

I tried the Samuel Smith first. The smell is just like what you expect in a stout: rich coffee and promise of a deep roast taste, which is what I got. Smooth, creamy, coffee. It's pretty dry. I can't tell the oatmeal has added much sweetness if at all, but it's contributed to the smoothness.

Next the homebrew. I was a little surprised that there is no stout nose at all, just a sort of mild beer-y smell.  The taste is more surprising. If I didn't see the beer and know from the brewer, I'm not sure I'd know it was supposed to be a stout. No coffee, chocolate, or deep roasted flavors at all. It tastes more like a Belgian beer. It does have a nice mouthfeel. Not sure what happened to the oatmeal or the stout though. It's a little bitter on the finish. Maybe that's the stout coming through a little bit?  It tastes very, very different from the Samuel Smith.

I taped labels to the bottom of the glasses, so I could mix them around and do a blind tasting, but the difference in the head made it obvious from looking at them. I closed my eyes and switched the glasses around a few times, but it was still really clear which one was which. I'll tell my homebrewing friend that he might want to consider telling people it's a dark Belgian style, rather than a stout.