All Beer Blog

Barley Island Brewing Company: Brass Knuckles Oatmeal Stout

Barley Island Brewing Company is another brewery located in Indiana. I couldn’t find that much information on the history of the brewery itself but from their website I gathered that they have a brewpub and about 10 beers they brew, they alternate which beers are on tap at their brewpub seasonally. Apparently they are the only brewpub in Hamilton County, Indiana. They state that the name Barley Island comes from an old 17th century name for the room in an alehouse that beer is consumed. Neat.

Brass Knuckles Oatmeal Stout was pretty good. I am starting to really like stouts and this is the first one I have chosen to review. As you can see the appearance is very dark; you can’t see through the beer at all. The smell was that of roasted malty chocolate and a little hint of oatmeal. Chocolate was definitely the dominant smell. The taste was the same, definitely tasted roasted chocolate. With an alcohol content of 4.9% alc/vol is was hard to taste; the beer itself is what you taste, not alcohol.

The head, as you can see, was not very large. It poured a darker, seemingly chocolately head. This dissapated to a thin layer that stuck around until the beer was fininshed. For a stout, this was not as heavy as I thought it was going to be and sat well in my stomach.

All in all, I give this beer a 7/10! It wasn’t the best stout I’ve ever had but it was definitely something you should try if you are interested in stouts. It wasn’t as heavy as others so it would probably be a good starter to see if you have the taste for stouts. I bought this beer in Indiana and have never seen it anywhere in Illinois (or anywhere else for that matter), so if you want it you will probably have to go to the source.

Regards!