Stoudt's Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout

This Summer I came across a few products from Stoudts, a brewery in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, and thought it was a bit strange they were even offering something as interesting as an imperial oatmeal stout all the way out here on the west coast. The Stoudts Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout is 9% ABV, with an IBU of 55, and brewed with 3 different hops- Warrior, Kent Golding, and Willamette.

It poured the beautiful shiny black color as you can see from the picture. The smell was pretty aromatic, with sweet dark roasted malts. Though I can't really say I've ever been able to pinpoint an "oat" smell from an oatmeal stout, I thought I picked up what could have been a sweet sort of oatmeal smell. The taste isn't as highly roasty as the aroma. There is actually much more of a chocolate taste to it, which really kicks in mainly after the sip. The deep chocolate is followed by cocoa powder and then a little bit of alcohol. There was suppose to have been a pretty generous hopping to it, but this bottle was probably old enough that they faded into the recesses of the dark thick malt. Pretty easy drinking for a big stout, especially if you have a sweet tooth.