I can’t remember exactly the first time I ever enjoyed a Buffalo Sweat but I have a hunch it was during a church function. Among the fellers at our church, the moderate enjoyment of adult beverages and cigars is sort of a thing. No one that chooses non-participation is excluded, mind you. I personally don’t go in for cigars at all. However, I do love craft beer and Buffalo Sweat has graced many of our church get-togethers.
Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Cream Stout is brewed by the Tallgrass Brewing Company in Manhattan, Kansas. The company also brews a Vanilla Bean version of Buffalo Sweat. It is an okay beer, but the version without the vanilla beans is the one you want and the one under review here.
Buffalo Sweat is easily one of the smoothest Oatmeal Stouts you will try. The predominant taste is chocolate with some coffee hints lurking in the background. The beer also sports a creamy, milky flavor at the beginning that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. The adjective that always comes to mind when trying to describe Buffalo Sweat to newbies is “velvety.” I have enjoyed this beer with food before but it seems to pair exceptionally well with desserts, especially desserts high in chocolate. Try a can of this beer with a generous slice of dark chocolate cake and see if you don’t agree.
Definition: An Oatmeal Stout is a stout that has had oats added to the brewing process. The adding of the oats the brewing process gives the finished product a smoother mouthfeel and a sweeter taste.
Lest anyone think that I am a lone ranger bragging on a regional, Kansas beer, think again. Buffalo Sweat has received wide-ranging outstanding reviews, including rating a 92 percent from the brothers on the Beer Advocate site. This is indeed a well-deserved rating. Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout would likely be considered the gold standard for Oatmeal Stouts. However, the Buffalo Sweat stands its ground very well.
Kansas is slowly but surely coming out from under the mushroom cloud of “Christian” prohibitionism run amok one brewery at a time. It is doing so by brewing beer meant to be savored and enjoyed in grateful moderation, not guzzled as rapidly as possible to ensure the rapid onset of intoxication.
There are several small breweries and brewpubs throughout Kansas, but Tallgrass is one of bigger breweries in the state (another would be Free State Brewing Company in Lawrence, Kansas.) Each of them seem to have one signature beer for which they are known. Tallgrass has Buffalo Sweat–one of the crown jewels in the Kansas beer crown.
Beer prayer: Gracious God, we give thanks for smooth, delicious taste of Tallgrass Brewing’s Buffalo Sweat. We find Your providence most humorous in that one of the finest Oatmeal Stouts in the United States is brewed in what was once ground zero for Carry Nation and her temperance movement. Thank you for the glorious way that something as common as oatmeal livens up and glorifies beer in such delightful ways. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!
My Untappd rating for Tallgrass Brewing Company Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Cream Stout: 5/5
Sundry musings from the heartland 