Stayed home from work today as I wasn’t feeling the drive and I’ve been pissed about not finding Pliny The Younger or just missed it incidents here in Los Angeles, but that’s another tale. It turned out to be a great morning as I had my tasty oatmeal pancakes with one of the best Oatmeal Stouts I’ve ever had and it’s from Founders Brewing; a Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout. This is a beer I got in the birthday package, and I gotta tell ya, the pancakes and the beer tasted great and took my mind off of The Younger for a few hours.

Stout patiently waiting for the pancakes.

As soon as I opened the bottle I could smell the roasted coffee, the malt, no chocolate, but lots of alcohol and at 8.3 ABV it was definitely present. A lot of the stouts I’ve had recently have been thin, but this one had a great body to it and was creamy. Nice bitterness from the chocolate and coffee, but very little from the hop. I got a lot of roasted goodness from the coffee and chocolate; these two were the main ingredients you could taste along with the alcohol. The syrup I poured over the pancakes enhanced the malt in the beer and cut a bit of the alcohol aftertaste and burn, but even without the syrup, the flavor would’ve been great. You can taste the oatmeal in this beer, the first time I ever have in a beer of this style, but could’ve been the pancakes too.

Overall a great tasting beer, I have to agree with Beer Advocates 100 points, but here at cervezaplease, we give beer caps, and its going into the Five Beer Caps Hall of Fame. When I open my bed and breakfast, this is going to be at the top of the menu, Kalifornia Oatmeal Pancakes with a Breakfast Stout by Founders. Keep reading for an easy oatmeal pancakes recipe and you can pair with milk, coffee, or beer of course.

Oatmeal Pancake Recipe:

• Makes four pancakes.
• 2 bags of your favorite microwavable oatmeal
• 3/4 cup of pancake mix
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of milk or water (or more), add a bit at a time and stop at your desired consistency
• Mix all ingredients and you’re ready to rock and roll!

Oatmeal is ready.

Add the pancake mix.

Mix all the ingredients

One ladle of the mix for a big pancake.

Butter the pancake when you flip it.

I don’t have a sweet tooth so I prefer butter and just a bit of syrup.

Throw one back for me ~ cheers!

I took a holiday from the blog but I’ve been at it with drinking new beers and I have badges to prove it! This was suppose to be the first post of the year, but I had a little mix up and I posted the Sam Adams Black & Brew first, a beer I enjoyed and you can read the post again or read it for the first time in case you missed it. Just before the year ended I checked in my 200th different beer. If I were to line up all 200 beers… whoa, what a site that would be, but I only need to lift my shirt as proof. I’m sure lots of you are way beyond that, but it’s been a steady pace for me and makes me wonder where I’ll be a year from now with the count. I haven’t posted much recently, but I have a few drafts (not beers on tap) ready to finish up and edit, so those will be coming shortly. One thing that will be making it easy for me to post more frequently, will be the fact that I will only be posting pictures from my iPhone. I should’ve taken this decision months back, instead of using my DSLR and editing the pictures on the computer; hard work, I know.

Here’s the image of the badge for that 200th beer.

OK, so now let’s get to the beer talk. With this entry I will be reviewing Arbor Brewing Co’s Fudge Stout, but I won’t rate it; continue reading and you’ll find out why.

You would think that with a big nose I’d be able to smell all the beer goodness, but no, damn sinus issues and a recent ear infection are not letting me pick up the wonderful smells in a beer. I was only able to pick up the strong smells, the alcohol, the malt, but not much else; none of the roasted aromas or the fudge. There were sediments that might’ve been a tell tell sign of having kept this beer far too long in the fridge. Lots of carbonation in it, craft beer never makes me burp, but this one did after a few sips. The beer was malty and surprisingly sour, not sure what that was about. The beer was thin, rare for a stout, and sadly I did not taste any of the fudge, only some of the roasted flavors came through after it warmed.

I encourage you to read and drink beer.

I won’t rate it as I might have ruined the beer for keeping it for so long, I think it’s the only fair thing to do. Perhaps and maybe if the Dodgers beat the Tigers in a series, I’ll get this in a trade again.

Throw one back for me ~ Cheers!

Now let’s get to the pictures and contents.

As soon as I opened the box I knew what it was

Hahaha the boobs are back!

What can it be?!

Steve, loves Dogfish Head so much he sent me one of them! Hahaha

I picked up a 12 pack at my local grocer for only $9.99, it was deal I couldn’t pass and I should’ve bought two as there were a few decent beers in the case and some that I really liked; you couldn’t go wrong for the price. I’m sure you’ve seen the Winter Classics variety pack and since doing research for this post, I learned it’s available during the months of November and December. The case of 12 includes two of each from, Boston Lager, Winter Lager, Holiday Porter, Old Fezziwig Ale, and their newest creations, Black & Brew and Chocolate Bock. I’ll be posting my thoughts on the Chocolate Bock in a few weeks.

Black and Brew is a Coffee Stout with a nice aroma of malt and bread notes, but I didn’t get any coffee aroma. A robust coffee flavor is prominent throughout, with a nice combination of chocolatey malt. There is a bitter finish to the beer from the roasted coffee. It has a nice body to it, really nice and creamy.

Here is my little one trying to get into my shot, lol.

This is a Four Beer Caps Stout that I truly enjoyed. The coffee and malt flavor combination really did it for me. I’ll be searching for this variety pack before the cold months are over. Just as I was finishing this post, I thought of a Stout Float; this would be great with a scoop of coffee or vanilla ice cream.

Throw one back for me ~ cheers!

Happy New Year beer drinkers! Forgive me, it’s been a few weeks since my last post; I’ll drink for penance. Today I got out of the house and headed to Fullerton, California and visited Bootleggers Brewery, while there, I got a chance to enjoy some really good beers and I met a really cool cat named Noah. Noah mentioned a friend of his took him there and he fell in love with craft beer. I got the best quote from Noah, he said “before I came here, I was drinking Coors light”, and by the looks of it, he hasn’t looked back. He visits Bootleggers often because he loves fresh beer, so much so that he rigged an old refrigerator and put five taps on it; I share his love for beer. Great talking to you Noah and thanks for the pint!

The couple on the left had driven 4000 miles and decided to stop by to get a taste of beer.

Before I took the drive there, I went to the Bootleggers site to make sure they were open and also to see what beers to expect. If you visit their site, you’ll notice they don’t update often. I only saw four beers, almost didn’t go, but I wanted to get out of the house and have a beer. Once there, I was surprised to learn how many beers Bootleggers brewed and had on tap; I was glad I took the drive. One thing to note about my visit, all the beers I was served today were on the very cold side, making the aroma almost non existent, with the exception of one beer where hops were very present. As I do with all the beers I review, I’ll give it a rating from the Kalifornia Beer Scale, 5 Beer Caps being the highest.

I started with their Chocolate Mint, there was no aroma, it was very cold like I already stated, no chocolate flavor, roasted espresso beans and not much else. I waited on the beer to warm up hoping other flavors would show up, but only mint did and it was very faint. 2 beer Cap.

The second beer I had was Dr Tongue. This Strong American Ale turned out to be my favorite out of the ones I had. Very strong hop aroma and flavor. Bread yeast taste comes through with enough caramel/malt flavor to let the citrus hop shine. The beer is very bitter, the finish will whoa you with bitter goodness. 4 Beer Caps.

Black Phoenix (Chipotle Coffee Ale) was the third beer I ordered. I’ve had my share of chipotle flavored beers and I gotta say this has been my favorite thus far. I really enjoyed the way the roasted coffee flavor marries with the smoky chipotle. For the finish you’ll find enough heat to invite you to sip again. I’m sure this is not news to everyone, but I’ll share anyway… chipotle chiles are smoked and dried jalapenos. 4 Beer Caps.

Rustic Rye, this was my fourth beer and it was something I was not impressed with; my least favorite beer. There were sweet aromas and flavors. Grapefruit and other pitted sweet fruits; certainly not a flavor profile I liked. I only had half a pour of it as I was ready to leave and was glad I didn’t pay for a full pour; I hate dumping beer or not finishing it. 1 Beer Cap.

The fifth and final beer I tried was a 10% ABV Double India Pale Ale called, Knuckle Sandwich. I wish I had a designated driver with me to have enjoyed a full pour of it. The beer had similar sweet notes to the Rustic Rye, but it had malt and hop goodness. I should’ve bought a bottle of it, but I was in a hurry to get out of there to grab a bite and catch the second half of the Packers v Giants game that I forgot to buy a bottle. 4 Beer Caps, but I think it could be a 5 Beer Caps worthy; I shall determine when I have a pour of it again.

I plan on making my way to Bootleggers Brewery soon, but it will have to be on a night when one of the food trucks show up. I read about a German Sausage truck showing up every other week, so that should be some good stuff to enjoy along with a nice tasting beer. I was really impressed with the beers I liked. The tasting turned out to be hit or miss for me when it came to finding something I enjoyed, but that’s what’s great about visiting a brewery, you get it fresh from the source and you have choices.

Throw one back for me ~ cheers!