Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve gone to beer camp. I went to Oldenberg’s Beer Camp in Fort Mitchell, KY many moons ago. And while that brewery (sadly) is now defunct, others have taken up the banner of beer camp. One of them is Sierra Nevada Brewing of Chico, California. This Beer Camp is a little different, however, so it’s probably best to explain why.

Oldenberg’s camp was all about drinking beer, experiencing beer, learning about beer, and enjoying beer. Sierra Nevada’s camp has all that going for it too, but with one important difference: you get to make beer, too. It’s also a bit tougher to get into. To attend Oldenberg Beer Camp, one plunked down one’s hard earned cash and got to Fort Mitchell (just outside Cincinnati). Money won’t buy your way into Sierra Nevada’s camp. Instead, you have to go the Beer Camp Website and make a case as to why you should be selected as a Beer Camper.

Even if you don’t get to go, though, you can still enjoy the fruits of Beer Campers’ labors in the Sierra Nevada Best of Beer Camp 12-pack sampler. The sampler offers 3 bottles each of four different past beer camp favorites. Under consideration tonight: Sierra Nevada Beer Camp #45: Oatmeal Stout.

At 9% alcohol by volume, this is really an Imperial Oatmeal Stout, though it remains incredibly smooth and drinkable indeed. I first enjoyed this treat very fresh shortly after buying the 12-pack in summer 2012. Tonight I am sipping a bottle with a bit of age on it, about 8 months or so. A beer this big can easily stand up to the tests of time.

Sierra Nevada Best of Beer Camp 45 Oatmeal Stout pours to a jet black color with a thick creamy tan head formation and a luscious dark malty-chocolate nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a firm creamy body and oily smoothness from the oats. The chocolate flavors are predominant, rich, dark, smooth and pudding-like, melding with a hint of coffee and licorice. In the finish, the beer has warming alcohol and, surprisingly, little of the hops we expect in a Sierra Nevada brew.

From the label:

"This big oatmeal stout is midnight black in color-with a big, roasty, mocha-like aroma. It has a silky body from the use of rolled oats, and a round and lasting finish. Perfect as an after-dinner treat."

Overall, a really wonderful and dangerously drinkable oatmeal stout. Shortly after releasing the 2012 Beer Camp 12-pack, Sierra Nevada released an imperial stout (Narwhal) that is a bit more robust than the Oatmeal Stout. Still, I'd like to see this beer resurface in some incarnation.

My one quibble here is the price, at $19.99 a 12-pack that's $3 more than i pad for Beer Camp beers in 2011. It's enough, I think, to bring this 5 star beer down to 4, but given you get to try 4 beers in the sampler and, well, this beer is so darned good, we'll settle on 4 and a half.



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