If you think oatmeal is only for your breakfast bowl and not your pint glass, you’re missing out. Popular since the 1800s in England, the oatmeal stout gets its name because of the high percentage of oats in the mash on top of the usual barley. Well known for its sweet, rich flavor profile, the oats give the beer a creamy, smooth mouthfeel. While most popular during the colder months, this stout is a great choice for any season.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of winter, a rainy spring day, a humid summer night, or a windy, crisp fall afternoon, barrel-aged stouts, milk stouts, imperial stouts, and oatmeal stouts always deliver something worth exploring. A great stout plays on the senses in that wonderfully refreshing way only a great beer can.
To help guide you on your oat-filled adventure, we decided to shout out some of our favorites. We found eight of the best oatmeal stouts that are perfect for all seasons and ranked them on overall flavor. Keep scrolling to see them all.
8. Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
ABV: 5.7%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This traditional, British-style stout is brewed with American ale yeast as well as pale malts, caramel malts, roasted barley, and oat flakes. It’s hopped with Northdown and Marynka hops. The result is a smooth, sweet, lightly nutty, oaty, gently bitter, memorable beer.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all dried fruits, chocolate, oats, vanilla, and light floral hops. The palate is loaded with sweet oats, dark chocolate, vanilla beans, raisins, candied nuts, and lightly floral, earthy hops. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and hop bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This is a great example of a no-frills, traditional English-style oatmeal stout and one that should be added to your must-try list.
7. Upslope Oatmeal Stout
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This beer is both flavorful and incredibly sessionable at 5% ABV. Brewed with roasted malts, oats, and East Kent Golding hops, it’s known for its creamy, smooth, well-balanced flavor profile featuring flavors like toffee, chocolate, oats, and dried fruits.
Tasting Notes:
Nosing it reveals scents of bready malts, roasted barley, dark chocolate, and candied orange peels. Sipping it brings forth notes of roasted barley, freshly baked bread, sweet oats, cocoa powder, raisins, and gently spicy hops. The finish is dry, and bitter, and leaves you craving more.
Bottom Line:
Upslope is the kind of brewery that makes nothing but high-quality brews. This balanced, sessionable oatmeal stout is no different.
6. East Brother Oatmeal Stout
ABV: 5.4%
Average Price: $10 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
East Brother is another brewery that set out the brew an authentic-tasting English-style oatmeal stout. And they did just that. This award-winning beer is creamy, smooth, and filled with flavors like chocolate fudge, dried fruits, and roasted malts.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of roasted barley, chocolate, coffee beans, dried fruits, and light smoke start your tasting experience off on the right foot. The palate is a mixture of dark chocolate, raisins, candied nuts, roasted barley, and sweet oats. The finish is dry and gently bitter.
Bottom Line:
As oatmeal stouts go, this one is a little on the lighter side in terms of mouthfeel. And, with all the heavy stouts out there, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
5. Elysian Dragonstooth Stout
ABV: 8.1%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This monstrous, 8.1% ABV imperial oatmeal stout is brewed with pale malts, Munich malts, and C-77 malts as well as roasted barley and roasted oats. It gets its bitter aroma and flavor from the addition of Magnum hops. Cascade and Centennial hops at extra flavors and aromas.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of milk chocolate, raisins, butterscotch, toasted barley, and freshly brewed coffee are prevalent on the nose. There’s more of the same on the palate with raisins, plums, toffee, dark chocolate, coffee beans, and roasted barley. The finish is a nice mixture of malt sweetness and hop bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This is a very complex imperial oatmeal stout. It’s the kind of beer that requires multiple sampling to find all the aromas and flavors.
4. Ninkasi Oatis
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Ninkasi Oatis has a lot of loyal fans. That’s because this 7% ABV oatmeal stout is loaded with roasted malt, dark chocolate, creamy oats, and gently bitter flavors. This is thanks to being brewed with 2-row bade malt, chocolate malts, Vienna malts, roasted barley, and a healthy smattering of oats. It gets its hop aroma and flavor from the use of Nugget hops.
Tasting Notes:
Smells of roasted coffee beans, milk chocolate, raisins, toasted vanilla beans, roasted barley, and light pine are big-time on the nose. The palate is a symphony of roasted barley, vanilla beans, dates, molasses, chocolate, a wisp of smoke, and just a hint of pine needles.
Bottom Line:
Coffee, chocolate, smoke, pine, this oatmeal stout has it all. It ticks all the boxes for warming, robust stouts.
3. Rogue Shakespeare Stout Nitro
ABV: 5.7%
Average Price: $12 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
You don’t have to be a fan of Bill Shakespeare to enjoy this imperial oatmeal stout, but it helps. This year-round offering from the folks at Oregon’s Rogue Ales is brewed with Pacman yeast, rolled oats, and roasted barley, as well as 2-row malt, C120 malt, Chocolate malt, and Munich malt. It’s hopped with Cascade hops and gets its indulgent, creamy mouthfeel from the use of nitro.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are scents of toasted malts, roasted coffee beans, caramelized sugar, light smoke, and vanilla beans. Sipping it reveals notes of brown sugar, roasted barley, pine needles, dark chocolate, espresso beans, and just a hint of smoke. It’s creamy and very complex.
Bottom Line:
The use of nitro adds an extra velvety, creamy mouthfeel to this already exceptional take on the oatmeal stout.
2. Fremont Dark Star
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
The Beer:
One of Fremont’s most popular beers, Dark Star is available all year long. Brewed with 2-row base malt, C-60 malt, Carafa 2 malt, and chocolate malt, as well as roasted barley and flaked outs, it gets its hop flavors from Magnum and Willamette hops.
Tasting Notes:
Pitch black in color, this award-winning imperial oatmeal stout begins with a nose of dark chocolate, roasted barley, yeasty bread, dried fruits, gentle spices, and brown sugar. The palate follows suit with notes of roasted barley, cocoa powder, plums, raisins, toffee, and espresso beans with a slightly acidic, lightly bitter, hoppy finish.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to balance between dark, robust, malty flavors and bitter hoppy ones, you’ll have a hard time topping Fremont Dark Star.
1. Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $11 for a four-pack
The Beer:
No oatmeal stout list is complete without the addition of Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout. This classic, English-style stout only lists a few ingredients including water, malted barley, cane sugar, roasted malt, yeast, hops, oatmeal, and carbon dioxide. That’s all they need to create a rich, robust, sweet, lightly bitter banger of a beer.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mix of sticky toffee, roasted malts, baking chocolate, raisins, and freshly brewed coffee. The palate is a mix of roasted barley, dark chocolate, dried fruits, brown sugar, coffee beans, and lightly floral hops. The finish is sweet, malty, and light bitter.
Bottom Line:
If you only try one oatmeal stout on this list, make it this award-winning brew from the folks at Samuel Smith’s. You can’t get any more authentic than this English-made beer.