I’d never tried any of Elysian Brewing‘s beers until recently: Dragonstooth Stout, which I received for "Secret Santa" at work last month. I don’t know why I’ve not previously tried any; I’ve seen them around. At any rate, Dragonstooth is an oatmeal stout, 7.4% alcohol by volume, and multiple award-winning.

Appearance: Head is a chocolate froth, nice and thick. Coffee-black and opaque.

Smell: Bittersweet chocolate/cocoa and coffee. Rich and roasty.

Taste: Sweet and burnt roasted malts. Coffee, dark chocolate, bitter but not astringent. Cocoa cream. Very, very good.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, creamy, oily, nice and full. Fills and coats the mouth, slightly dry but no astringency at all.

Overall: This is an excellent, excellent stout that I quite enjoyed. Much better than I expected, frankly.

On BeerAdvocate, it only has nine reviews, not enough for a full accounting, but thus far the informal score is 3.99 out of 5, with all nine approving. There are more reviews on RateBeer, where it scores 3.8 out of 5 and lands in the 96th percentile, a very good performance.

This is definitely worth picking up, if you can find it.