Drink Me Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout with Strawberries, Coffee, & Chocolate

Review Date 3/8/2021  By John Staradumsky

It’s been a year, now, since Covid reared its ugly head and cast a pall of doom and gloom over the world. For me, that has meant a lot of not going anywhere. No pub crawls, no beer vacations, no Taco Mac, no brewery visits. Then came Saturday, March 6th, 2021. Georgia Beer Day.

From the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild:

Buy a pint. Keep the glass. Support the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild! While supplies last, visit participating brewers throughout the state, and go home with one of these collectible glasses featuring the state bird, tree, flower, and insect. $1 from every pint glass sold supports the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild.

My wife, knowing of my affinity for beer glasses, placed an online order for me as one of my birthday gifts. A six-pack of Mittens Gets a New Ball and a bottle of Reformation Drink Me Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout with Strawberries, Coffee, & Chocolate. And with luck, a Georgia Beer Day glass.

The order was placed online around 1PM, but the brewery did not open until 2, and the order would not be ready until 3:35 PM. I got there at 3 all the same, because really, how long does it take to put a six-pack and a bottle of beer in a bottle? A $5 tip was automatically added to my order, which is fine, I believe in compensating the staff. But tip stands for “to insure prompt service”, after all.

As I said, I got there around 3PM, and much to my dismay, the brewery was packed with maskless people in the middle of a pandemic. I was extremely uncomfortable with this to say the least. Look, I get that people are going to remove their masks to eat and drink. But these same people were romping all over the indoor space, standing in line for a refill, walking around with beer, and all of that without a mask.

I got to the counter and asked for my beer so I could leave. There was no way I was going to sit and drink a pint in this environment. The gal went to the cooler and took quite a bit of time (maybe ten minutes? Seems a long time to grab a bag and hand it to me). To come back with my beer. I asked about the Georgia Beer Day glasses, and she replied they sold out in the first 30 minutes. Seriously? How many did they have, three? I got my beer and left.

The next day, I popped the bottle of Reformation Drink Me Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout with Strawberries, Coffee, & Chocolate. This is a brewery only beer and Reformation says:

Aged for a year in ASW Fiddler bourbon barrels, we took our oatmeal stout brewed with locally roasted Alma Coffee and added strawberries & chocolate. Savor with your best self, your beloved, or pair with chocolates & chill vibes.

Reformation Drink Me Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout with Strawberries, Coffee, & Chocolate has an alcohol content of 7.2% by volume and I paid $15 for the half liter bottle, or more correctly, my wife did.

Reformation Drink Me Bourbon Barrel Aged Oatmeal Stout with Strawberries, Coffee, & Chocolate pours to a jet-black color with a light head of large loosely packed bubbles and a big boozy bourbon nose and black coffee. Taking a sip, the beers is extremely boozy and bourbony, it is woody, with the coffee and creamy chocolate really coming through nicely. The strawberry is subtler, but you get it if you hunt a little. Very boozy again in the finish, and the beer seems stronger than it really is.

Rant number two, now. Seriously, what is up with this trend to sell beers in half-liter bottles now instead of bombers? This beer is excellent, make no mistake about that. But for fifteen bucks give me 22-ounce for crying out loud, not 16.9. To be fair, Reformation is not the only brewery to do this, but it is still concerning to me. Overall I would rate the beer four and a half stars, but I will deduct a star for the high price of the small sized bottle. Would I drink it again? I would, but not as often at the price of $15 a pint (and $3 more tip to make me stand and wait for it).

Reformation Drink me is a delicious beer to be sure, but my first visit inside a brewery in over a year sadly left a bad taste in my mouth.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

 

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