Off Color Dino S'mores Review

Name: Off Color Dino S'mores
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 10.5%
IBUs: 40

Lookie here, a new beer that I recently picked up from Off Color Brewing. This time around, we've got Dino S'mores, an imperial stout made with marshmallows, graham flour, vanilla bean and cocoa nibs; In other words, a S'more Stout. When I stumbled upon this, I saw there was a one bottle limit per customer, which is fine since I personally rarely buy packs of the same beer. Plus the asking price of one bottle is enough to deter me from putting down money on an actual 4-pack of this stuff. Speaking of which.....

I personally have not heard anything from anyone about this beer, aside from its very high rating on Beer Advocate. My first exposure to this brewery came in the form of their Scurry Altbier, which I thought was good but the asking price for it was a bit high for a 4-pack. I'm hoping it won't be the case with this beer.

Appearance - Pitch black with a thin brown colored head that settles down to a semi-translucent appearance. The lacing starts out promising initially but it ends up being very sparse.

Aroma - Chocolate malts and vanilla sweetness, followed by some graham crackers, marshmallows and dark chocolate with a bit of hop bitterness on the back end of the nose. Well I have to give them credit, it certainly smells like a S'more.

Taste - Chocolate malts & cocoa nibs accompanied by marshmallow and vanilla beans. The back end of the palate opens up to those graham cracker notes along with more of that cocoa nib sweetness along with some mild bitter hoppiness. The aftertaste is a mix of chocolate, vanilla and graham crackers.

There's no other way to put this: It's a S'more in liquid form and it works very well. Every element of the flavor compliments the others quite well and what we end up getting is a very robust and tasty Imperial Stout that manages to fire on all cylinders.

 I've had a some S'more stouts before from a couple of different breweries, but they all lacked that "Wow" factor that should've been there. It's almost like Off Color came along and said "Look, THIS is how you make an awesome S'more stout." In short, if you're able to find this beer, then it would be in your best interests to check it out. Don't let the price of admission scare you on this one, the ride is worth it.

Off Color Dino S'mores - 9.5/10