St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout

Like most animals, I too am capable of learning, and as of today's post I will give a title to each beer I review and photograph. This one might as well be called 'Black Beauty'. It is one of the finest stouts I have tasted, rivaling Guinness and Murphy's and all the other fine stouts out there (although I should say that I have not yet had the pleasure of drinking a Guinness in Dublin, which I hear is an experience unlike any other Guinness experience). The name of this beer tells you that it is also brewed by Montreal's McAuslan Brewery, like the Apricot Wheat Ale from a previous post. I took a specimen down to the brewery, where they have a patio serving beer and food next to a bike path along the Lachine Canal, which crosses the island of Montreal to help ships circumvent a set of rapids. The good people on the St Ambroise Terasse, as it is called, were kind enough to let me set up and even donated a small glass of the good stuff, seen in the picture below. The taste of this beer is other-wordly, I should say. I do not drink much stout but have brewed some myself in the past, and the rich palate of the St Ambroise Noire says oatmeal all the way. Its chocolate and black malt flavours are accentuated by sweet burnt toast notes, and the well-balanced bitter hops character cuts the end of the palate nice and dry. Surprisingly, this beer tastes very refreshing, especially on a hot summer day like today, when I took the picture below. Note the lovely black colour and thick creamy head.

Yeah, yeah, so I was too thirsty to wait  for taking this next photo. Remember what this blog is called, and note the amazing structure of old factory building in the background!