In our occasional Beer For Breakfast series, we pair up a popular breakfast item with a beer style and then map the best options for this pairing. This time, it’s the classic biscuits and gravy.
The sweetness and creaminess of an oatmeal stout make it a complementary pairing with hearty mushroom or sausage gravy and buttery biscuits. We’ve updated Emily Hutto’s original list with other oatmeal stouts reviewed in Issue 4 (Winter 2014) of _Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® _to give you even more options.
Bristol Brewing Company Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Roast and chocolate malts give the Warlock a coffee-esque aroma and flavor. This winter favorite is slightly bitter, with the balanced amount of sweetness from the 100 pounds of flaked oatmeal.
Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
St. Louis, Missouri
This classic British-style stout is brewed with flaked oatmeal, which imparts creaminess, and roasted barley, which makes for the beer’s nutty character. Freshly-roasted coffee beans, cocoa, and touches of raisin and dried fruit dominate the aroma of this super dark ale.
Ispwich Oatmeal Stout
Ispwich, Massachusetts
We couldn’t say it better than this Ispwich, Massachusetts, brewery’s website if we tried— “Deep, rich, and malty with hints of chocolate and coffee. It's what espresso would be if it had the gumption to be beer. We use two different hop additions, specially selected crystal malts, roasted barley, and oatmeal to give it a soft and silky mouth feel. Makes a great dessert. Or meal.”
Ninkasi Vanilla Oatis Oatmeal Stout
Euguen, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon-based Ninkasi took its flagship oatmeal stout, the Oatis, and added whole vanilla beans to the final stage of fermentation as if it were dry-hopped. Good morning.
Verboten Pure Imagination
Loveland, Colorado
A 2014 World Beer Cup Silver Medal winner, Pure Imagination has aromas of chocolate, cherry, and coffee. The roasty sweet notes will pair well with buttery biscuits.
Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
Boonville, California
The smokiest stout of this lineup, this California-brewed beer has aromas of freshly baked bread, espresso, and dried cherries with toffee flavors and a creamy mouthfeel. Perfect for accentuating the complex flavors in sausage gravy.
Alaskan Stout
Juneau, Alaska
The blend of oats and malts give Alaskan Stout a nice malt character with hints of nuts, chocolate, caramel, and coffee candy. Think of it as a caramel mocha latte to go with your biscuits and gravy.
Great Divide Oatmeal Yeti
Denver, Colorado
Try biscuits and gravy for a midnight snack with Oatmeal Yeti, a huge beer with intense flavors of coffee, cocoa, and dark chocolate. One of our reviewers called it “death by chocolate stout.” Did you know that chocolate is great at taming the heat in spicier sausages and gravies?