Tallgrass Brewing Company Buffalo Sweat

This is one of those beers obtained on the epic trip to Peoria. I could complain some more about it, but I think I have most complaining out of my system, and I really have nothing to complain about right now: Dad is being very helpful, despite being in a massive funk, and Nathan is cleaning up a pretty epic mess from dinner. Here's a spoiler for the show: I'm desperately trying to figure out how to be a neater cook, because it looks bad on television, especially in 3D.

This beer was highly recommended by the helpful resident beer god at Friar Tuck's in Peoria. In fact, he recommended anything by Tallgrass, but this brew in particular. It's an oatmeal cream stout, and seems to be a good fit for a dark-beer kind of night. Tallgrass Brewing is out of Manhattan, Kansas, making this, I do believe, the first beer from Kansas I've had.

It pours jet black into the glass, with a small coffee-with-cream colored head that doesn't have much staying power. The aroma is wonderful: lovely roasted, toasted notes, and a sweet whiff that catches my intrigue. There's coffee and chocolate, but neither overwhelms the other, and there's a decent bready note underlying it all. Taking a sip, it drinks much like it smells. The sweetness from the lactose balances out the roasted notes. There may be more coffee in drinking it than there is in the aroma. It finishes fast and dry and very well-rounded from the oatmeal. It's pretty heavy in body, with a good carbonation that tickles down the throat.

This is a delight on a not-so-hot July night (it's storming and chilly here, in fact). Thanks for the recommendation; I'd drink this again in a heartbeat.

4.5/5 caps

-Jennie

Jennie, it's kind of hard to keep clean when there are a combination of 4 pots and pans on the stove at the same time (each containing a tasty ingredient for the epic concoction that was mexi-meatloaf open-faced sandwich). At least the toaster was clean.

Looked into the breweries in Kansas, as of January 2013, there are 14 breweries. This is the first Kansas brew we've had. But this makes me wonder if I should compile a list of each state we've had brews from (I randomly like making lists of things like that, or list of the people who have ridden in each of my vehicles, list of the different beers we've reviewed, so on and so forth). It's a weird thing I like to do to keep my brain busy instead of wandering off into it's own world of insanity, though insanity isn't always a bad thing.

That being said, onto the review. I poured the 16 ounce can of oil-like brew. 5.0% ABV, 20 IBUs. Dark, opaque, with a creamy, frothy head that dissipates quickly and eventually looks like a flat cola. This has had time to warm up while I was doing reconstruction on the kitchen mess, previously stated. The aroma is roasted notes, like coffee, with a sweetness about it and hints from time to time of dark chocolate, but mostly fresh brewed coffee. The flavor is like a little brother of Founders Breakfast Stout. By little brother, I mean that as it's lighter body and lighter flavor. It's still coffee/roasted flavor, the lactose sugars help mellow it out. There are hints of cola, cocoa and oatmeal toward the back. This is a medium body beer with a slightly creamy mouthfeel, not overly creamy, more like, well, coffee with cream. Lighter carbonation to add to some awesomeness of this stout.

Wish we could get this here in Ohio.

4.5/5 caps

-Nathan-

By the way- this puts us up to 20 different states that we've had beer from. I quickly formed a list and referenced another list (beers we've reviewed) to figure that out.