Not all stouts — a style marked using roasted malts and barley — are created equal, with alcohol levels, recipes, flavorings, and textures running the gamut. From the traditional stouts that emerged after porter rose to popularity in England in the 1800s to today’s kaleidoscope of craft variations, the characteristics found within the category are myriad. This differential stout fact is front and center during Peaks & Pints February Stout Month. It’s time for another Stout Month beer flight, this time with more oats. As advertised, oats appear in the recipe for oatmeal stouts, but the ingredient is used more for texture than flavor. Originally conceived as an alternative to the rising popularity of milk stouts in Great Britain, the addition of oats yields a creamy mouthfeel but without any sweetness. Stop by Peaks & Pints today for our Tuesday Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Oatmeal Stouts.

Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Oatmeal Stouts

Mother Earth Milk Truck

5.8% ABV

Opaque in appearance, but with a marshmallow softness, Mother Earth Brewing uses specially chosen roasted malts to impart a non-astringent, darkness that laces the glass and our mouths from first sip. Accentuated using vanilla, lactose, and a heavy dose of oats, this big-bodied milk stout further impresses by finishing with a rich coffee aroma.

Bale Breaker Dormancy

6.8% ABV

Substitute your cup of Joe for this breakfast tout. This beer packs a breakfast punch with its intense roasted coffee flavor and rich chocolate notes. Bale Breaker achieved the freshly brewed espresso taste by conditioning this oatmeal stout on locally roasted coffee beans from Yakima’s Lincoln Avenue Coffee Co. If you love coffee, you will love this beer. It’s filling and complex but will leave you wanting more.

Varietal Grievous Angel Barrel Aged Stout

11.7% ABV

This Washington Beer Awards gold medalist blend of oatmeal and milk stouts is aged in second-use Woodford Reserve Rye and Woodford Reserve Double Oaked bourbon barrels for 18 months for notes of baker’s chocolate, fresh roasted coffee, and oaky vanilla, with just a touch of char and peppery spice on the finish. And since Varietal Beer‘s base beer is a blend of Oatmeal Stout and Milk Stout, it drinks creamy-smooth from a touch of lactose.

Claim 52 Emerge: Coconut Vanilla

12.5% ABV

Brewed with flaked oats and 2-row, roasted barley, chocolate wheat, chocolate, and caramel malts, hopped with Nugget, partially aged in Westward Whiskey barrels, and conditioned on Singing Dog vanilla beans and toasted coconut, Claim 52 Brewing‘s roasty imperial pastry stout Emerge leans into the coconut and vanilla.

Fremont 2024 The Rusty Nail

14.1% ABV

Fremont Brewing’s The Rusty Nail begins as their The First Nail, an oatmeal stout of epic proportions with brewer’s licorice, smoked barley, and pale malt. It is then aged on cinnamon bark for 15 months in 12-year-old bourbon barrels for layers of dark cocoa and spice atop a finely tuned whiskey profile.

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