Jay Gaulard Blog

Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

I have some good news and bad news about my current batch of beer. I will tell you about it in my next post. For this post, I would like to tell you about a beer I picked up today. Well, actually there are two types of beer, but this post is only about one.

This morning, we were sitting on the couch, when I said, “If we were to do something today, what would you want to do?” I really didn’t have anything in mind, I was just curious. I was happy sitting around all day. Well, to make a long story short, we ended up at Emmanuel’s Market Place in Stone Ridge again. I know I said before that I was getting a little tired of the Sushi up there, but the combination of the getting out of the house, Sushi, beer and bagels gets me every time. So there we were.

We did get a bunch of Sushi today. I thought it would be a good idea to mix things up, so we got a bunch of veggie Sushi, like a lot of rolls with avocado in them. I am excited for later. As usual, I grabbed some bagels. On the way to the bagel area, I passed fresh pasta. I have never (that I know of) eaten fresh pasta before. I asked Laura if she wanted to get some, when I remembered that I bought her that new KitchenAid mixer for her birthday. There is an attachment that goes with it that makes pasta. Now, you know that went on my to-do list. We voted against the fresh pasta for today.

What this post is really about is the new beer I got. I picked up a 6-pack of Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout and wanted to tell you all about it.

Why am I buying beer? I’ll tell you about that later. Anyway, this one is pretty good. I cracked the bottle open and poured it in my trusted beer glass. It poured like a nice dark beer and tastes kind of like one too. I would say this beer is a very good one that might be appreciated by people who like dark beer, but a bit lighter than the rest. It has a “thinner” taste and doesn’t overpower you like that Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout I have had. This is a very drinkable beer and I would buy it again.

There you have it. Now, for my home brew story, please see above.

Driving Through Ellenville and Stone Ridge, NY

Monday, January 7th, 2008

One of the main reasons I wanted to get this new Sony Handicam Camcorder was to take videos, and videos I am taking.

I am on the internet quite often looking for nice towns throughout the United States. Every so often, I bump into some bright and intelligent genius who takes video while driving through various places in various towns. I really like this because it gives a nice picture of what the towns are like…the main street, the traffic, the types of cars parked on the sides of the roads, etc…When I search YouTube to look at these types of videos, I really like it when I actually find one.

With that in mind, I decided to take some video yesterday while driving through Ellenville and Stone Ridge, NY. These videos aren’t the greatest, because it was kind of cloudy yesterday and there was dirty snow all over the place. That actually might be a good thing because it shows what the town actually looks like at a certain point in time, good or bad.

Anyway, onto the video driving through Stone Ridge…

…and the video driving through Ellenville.

Dogfish Head Chicory Stout + Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

Today is Sunday. On Sundays, we like to get in the car and go for little trips. I guess you can call us Sunday drivers. We probably drive as slow as them.

This Sunday, we decided to go up to Emmanuel’s Market Place in Stone Ridge again for their delicious Sushi. This may very well turn into something we do often. I had three things in mind that I wanted to get from this store…Sushi, beer and bagels. The Sushi is a given as we always get that. The beer variety is usually pretty good, because it seems like this place likes micro-brews and the bagels were a toss-up.

We got to the store and grabbed the Sushi. Then, we walked back to get some bagels. I was pretty surprised when we found the bagels. They are the biggest bagels I have ever seen. Here, take a look…

There was a sign to the side that said something like they apologize for raising the price to $.79. It’s because of the cost of materials. I thought, “Gee, they raised their prices to the same price Hannaford has, but their bagels are twice the size?” That’s weird. We put four of them into the basket.

Then, we were onto the beer. I was really looking for some oatmeal stout. That is my all time favorite type of beer. I kept coming across this india pale ale stuff that didn’t interest me in the least. I couldn’t find any dark stuff. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, when I say dark, I mean oozing, dripping dark. We were about to give up when I noticed some beer up above the dairy cases. We walked over and I found two good, dark looking beers.

The first one is called, Dogfish Head Chicory Stout. Here is a pic…

Here is what they say about this beer:

A dark beer made with a touch of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John’s Wort, and licorice root. Brewed with whole-leaf Cascade and Fuggles hops, the grains include pale, roasted & oatmeal.

I opened this bottle first and am drinking it right now. I can’t say I am disappointed, but it didn’t give me the “Wow” that the Sam Adams Double Bock did. I am not sure I will ever get that again. This is a good beer though. It is pretty creamy and tastes “complex,” if I am allowed to use that word.

The second beer I picked up was Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout. This looks like a really dark beer, but I will have to tell you about it after I try it. Here is a pic…

People are saying pretty good things about this on Beer Advocate. One person described it as “3000 mile motor oil.” That sounds nice to me. Others have said the alcohol taste is too prevalent. We’ll have to see about that when I try it.

Here is a photo of the bottles: