Yes I've been waiting for a bottle of this to blog about for a long time. Most of you probably know Big Sky Brewing for Moose Drool Brown Ale, Scape Goat Pale Ale, IPA, and a wide assortment of other craft brews you can pick up in just about any supermarket in the area. The brewery has in recent years came out with some wonderful specialty bottles of rarer beer. There has been one beer that Big Sky has been brewing for years, but simply just doesn't release it as a normal part of the line up even as a seasonal such as their Powder Hound Winter Ale. In fact in years past you could only get it from the brewery, and in then only in February such a wonderful time to visit Missoula Montana. That beer Slow Elk Oatmeal Stout! Let me take a brief respit to explain the title, and the wonderful picture of a cow with elk antlers tied to it's head. In Montana it's been a patter over the years of out of town hunters coming into the area and accidentally shooting cows not being able to tell the difference between the old moo cow and an elk. All that's interesting enough, but this also my hands down favorite oatmeal stout. For one it has a nice wonderfully bold smell to it, which a lot of oatmeal stouts I've had are sorely lacking. Like just about all oatmeals stouts this one has a awesomely thick body. The density of the beer feels thick, which lends itself well to the rest of this beers make up. What Slow Elk does different than many of those other beers though is also have a rich robust taste to go along with the body. Some oatmeal stouts are simply just thick with almost no taste, and nearly accomplish tasting like distilled oatmeal with little or kick in flavor. Slow Elk has a nice rich taste with a slight bitter similar to coffee or chocolate but not enough to be those flavors. The complexity of the beer is thus kept in tact, and keeps it from wandering into the territory of tasting like some other sort of stout. It's a great rich oatmeal stout that sits on your tongue well, and at only 5.4% it's not super heavy as well. Which makes it an awesome beer to sit and sip if your just relaxing in our colder stoutier weather the northwest will soon be enduring. Availability, well my buddy picked up this for me in Missoula so that's probably off the table for many of you. However I do know 99 Bottles did get some, and I'm sure some of the other beer specialty shops will get some to. I haven't seen it start popping up in any grocery stores yet, but if it does dream come true. Thank you Big Sky for stepping up and bringing this wonderful beer back to the big market again, thank you, thank you, thank you!
