Uncommon Stout 6.5% ABV
Oatmeal Stout (With Coffee)
Bent River Brewing Company

I kept hearing about this beer.  The local beer emporium that I like to frequent has trouble keeping it in stock, not for lack of trying.  They have at least one regular customer who will buy three or four 6 packs of this brew at a time.  I’ve seen it happen first hand.  This particular customer, as you would expect, raves about the beer.  On occasion, I would plan on trying the beer out, but it would never be in stock when I had this desire.  A few weeks ago, I saw a lone 6 pack still on the shelf and hastily grabbed it before it was gone.  I’m a big coffee fan and have come to rather enjoy coffee stouts.  I had very high expectations for this beer.

The brew has a decent coffee aroma.  Upon first taste you can tell that it was brewed with coffee.  It’s a solid beer.  The problem is that it is nowhere near as good as a couple other coffee stouts I’ve had.  I was really hoping that it would be comparable to Schlafly Coffee Stout.  It is not on the same level.

This is much more of an oatmeal stout with a hint of coffee to it.  I’m sure I’d be more complimentary of this brew if I had tried it before other coffee beers, or at the very least hadn’t set such high expectations upon it.  Thankfully the Schlalfly Coffee Stout will soon be back in season.  One area, in which the Uncommon Stout out performs the Schlafly Coffee Stout, is its year round availability.  This is a decent second string beer to substitute in, when you can’t get your hands on a Schalfly Coffee Stout.

Bent River Brewing Company now has two locations.  Their original brewpub located in downtown Moline, IL.  They also opened a distribution center with bottling line and tasting room in Rock Island, IL in May of 2012.  They produced their first keg of Pale Ale back in 1999 and now produce over 10,000 barrels of beer annually.  They have won various awards include a second place finish in the Great American Brew Fest.