{"id":3908,"date":"2012-05-09T05:46:47","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T17:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2012-05-09T18:16:36","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T06:16:36","slug":"st-ambroise-oatmeal-stout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/09\/st-ambroise-oatmeal-stout\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"St-Ambroise<\/a>
St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Canada Day last year then continued<\/a> with this, a Quebecker Oatmeal Stout, there at my desk at home (with the Diary<\/em>\u00a0itself and my rather-lovely Hashigo Zake bottle opener visible behind it, and it perched on ludicrously-extravagant Moa Beer leather-and-felt coaster). And, just for a sense of continuity and appropriateness I’m now — as then — listening to The Tragically Hip<\/a>, who I’ve been fond of for ages and to the extent where it appears as a data point to those not-insignificant numbers of people who assume me to be<\/em>\u00a0Canadian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a massively well-renowned stout<\/a>, and it was being consumed by someone to which oatmeal stout is a kind of wintery, liquid Kryptonite.1<\/sup> But it and I just didn’t get along fantastically well. Its company was pleasant enough, but it should’ve<\/em> been like a fireside chat with Stephen Fry himself, given the circumstances. This just didn’t have the glorious smoothness that is half the reason I go so wibbly for a good oatmeal stout,2<\/sup> and there was a faint tinge of metal that made it reminiscent (not entirely unwelcomely) of a thick foil bag of chocolate-chip cookies.<\/p>\n

It just seemed a little past its prime — though the Best Before date was impenetrably Hieroglyphic, smooshed and encoded. Consensus from a few at Hashigo was that it probably had been around for a while and had come via a third party somewhere, this not being one of their ultra-cautious imports. While neither a disaster nor a complete swing-and-a-miss, certainly, it simply wasn’t quite what I wanted and seemed unable (in that<\/em> time and place) from making good on its promise. Mercifully, in the same takeaway-shopping trip, I also bought another\u00a0\u2018P\u00e9ch\u00e9 Mortel\u2019 from the equally-Quebe\u00e7ois\u00a0Dieu du Diel!<\/a>, which was completely delicious and undegraded and thereby rescued the evening convincingly. Now I just want another of those<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Diary<\/a>
Diary II entry #119, St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Original Diary Entry:<\/strong>\u00a0St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout 1\/7\/11 continuing the theme. $9.5 @ HZ, 341ml only 5% Another hundreder,3<\/sup> which didn’t immediately grab me. The smoothness<\/span> of the oats (and of the online praise), just isn’t so much there. I initially thought I just had it too cold. But it’s still having the same sharp uptick ride on the palate. Not unwelcome, just unexpected, unplanned. Slightly<\/span> metal? Can’t decipher the best before.\u00a0\u201c12 B?<\/sup> 30 \/ J2010\u201d Hopefully the latter isn’t it… Not sure. Smells like a bag of cookies. [2nd P\u00e9ch\u00e9 Mortel<\/a> was way<\/span> better.]<\/p>\n

\n

1:<\/strong> Damnit. Now a Superman reference seconds after talking about Canadian music has the Crash Test Dummies firmly stuck in my head<\/a>.<\/span>
\n2:<\/strong> See, for example, Liberty’s stupidly-fucking-fantastic ‘Never Go Back’<\/a> — or, if you think that might be cheating a little, with its hugeness<\/em>, just look to Firestone Walker’s ‘Velvet Merlin’<\/a>.<\/span>
\n3:<\/strong> By which I mean it scored a full 100 on RateBeer.com<\/a>. I probably use that word as short hand because I really loved Neal Stephenson’s Anathem<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(in which it means something very different).<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Canada Day last year then continued with this, a Quebecker Oatmeal Stout, there at my desk at home (with the Diary\u00a0itself and my rather-lovely Hashigo Zake bottle opener visible behind it, and it perched on ludicrously-extravagant Moa Beer leather-and-felt coaster). And, just for a sense of continuity and appropriateness I’m now — as then … Continue reading St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,33,11,44],"class_list":["post-3908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-canada","tag-stout","tag-2011-07"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3086,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/05\/19\/townshend-st-bernards-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":0},"title":"Townshend ‘St. Bernard’s’ Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"May 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I bloody loves Oatmeal Stout, I do -- especially in the winter; it's basically the off-season equivalent of my recurring summertime Golden Ale obsession. There is just something absurdly comforting about a good one, and I've been blessed by more than a few fine examples, lately, ranging from sessionable ones\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Townshend 'St. Bernard's' Oatmeal Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Townshend-St.-Bernards-Oatmeal-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/05\/emersons-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":1},"title":"Emerson’s Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Emerson's Oatmeal Stout. This is how I started my day, at 10.00am, watching CNN for coverage of the U.S. Presidential Election. As we all know by now, the Good Guy won. It pours as absolute darkness in a glass, and is ludicrously smooth to drink, with a great big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emerson's Oatmeal Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Emersons-Oatmeal-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3497,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/24\/firestone-walker-velvet-merlin\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":2},"title":"Firestone Walker ‘Velvet Merlin’","author":"Phil","date":"June 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Karma is a bitch, sometimes. One day, I upload a podcast in which I make a flippant reference to wishing that trench foot isn't lost from the world -- I'm not even sure why I did; these things just ramble out of my brain, sometimes -- and the very next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Firestone Walker 'Velvet Merlin', tap handle","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Firestone-Walker-Velvet-Merlin-tap-handle-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2598,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/04\/16\/little-creatures-single-batch-oatmeal-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":3},"title":"Little Creatures Single Batch Oatmeal Stout","author":"Phil","date":"April 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hardly a secret: I loves the Little Creatures, I do. It continues to pain me greatly that only the Pale Ale is available over here in New Zealand -- as much as I freakin' adore it, they've long make other brilliant things and have relatively-recently\u00a0started doing these 'Single Batch'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Creatures Single Batch Oatmeal Stout","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Little-Creatures-Oatmeal-Stout-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1028,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/10\/emersons-brewers-reserve-grace-jones-porter\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":4},"title":"Emerson’s Brewers’ Reserve: ‘Grace Jones’ Porter","author":"Phil","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Emerson's brewers are here doing their own version of the Barry White joke I made in reference to their Oatmeal Stout. Not that I'm claiming credit, of course. But it's nice to have a \"thinking alike\" moment now and then. Much like the recent Southern Clam Stout, 'Grace' does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emerson's 'Grace Jones'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2034-Emersons-Grace-Jones-300x243.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3486,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/20\/liberty-never-go-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":3908,"position":5},"title":"Liberty ‘Never Go Back’","author":"Phil","date":"June 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"And so here my notes complete a hat-trick1 of ten-per-cent-plus black-and-glorious monster beers. It happened entirely by accident -- presumably helped by the contemporaneous feeling that Winter Was Coming -- and now also occasions one of those nice coincidences that seem to happen (as I mentioned last time) when I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Liberty 'Never Go Back'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Liberty-Never-Go-Back-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3954,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions\/3954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}