Review: Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin

If you're looking for a solid, sessionable stout, look no further than Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin. Firestone Walker has an array of great beers, but Velvet Merlin stands out to me as one of the finest beers that is easily obtainable. A six pack runs about $9.99 in Colorado and has 5.5% alcohol by volume, one of the reasons that it is so easy to drink.

Velvet Merlin is an Oatmeal Stout that has a huge aroma of baker's cocoa, rich and fresh coffee, sweet vanilla beans, and roast. The mouth feel is very soft and silky. This beer is just packed with rich cocoa/dark chocolate flavor with some lesser fruit notes, mild coffee, and an almost brownie batter-like taste. There is a fairly nice hoppy bite to balance out the sweetness and while this beer is somewhat of a dessert beer, the flavor doesn't linger on your palate too incredibly long. At a $9.99 price point, it's hard to find a better stout to drink a six pack of on a cool night in Colorado.

Aroma: 9/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 9/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 18/20 (4.3/5.0)

My cat Lenin also tasted Velvet Merlin and found it to be adequate, rating it a 6/10.

New Year, New Blog

Welcome to my long awaited blog on the Colorado beer scene! Sure, there are plenty of Colorado beer blogs out there (I recommend The Colorado Beer Girl, Napa of Beer, and Fermentedly Challenged), but I will be providing a few additional features including

• Gonzo-style beer ratings
• An introduction to various beer styles
• Inside the lives of beer tickers
• Some of the more interesting local tastings
• Feline beer ratings

For the past two plus years, I have been rating (in beer geek lingo, "ticking") beers on RateBeer. Today, I stand at 5,343 beer ratings and have finally decided to take the plunge on creating a beer blog. I have also served as the alco-political correspondent on Festung Europa and I am hoping to contribute to a variety of like minded blogs in the coming months, as well as having some guest correspondents here at Schrödinger's Cat.

A couple of my first features will focus on two beer scenes, the state of New Mexico and the city of St. Louis, and one of my favorite beer styles, Saisons. In the mean time, here's my notorious cat, Lenin, tasting one of the world's most popular Double IPAs, Bear Republic Racer X.