Ninkasi was worshiped as the goddess of beer and alcohol in ancient Sumaria some 6000 thousand years ago. Her name means ‘the lady who fills the mouth'. Her duties as an immortal were to prepare the nectar of the gods - AKA beer - to "satisfy the desire" and "sate the heart".Naturally, there is a brewery named after her. Ninkasi Brewing is located in Eugene Oregon. They started out with a 15-barrel system in 2006. Three expansions later, their current brewery features a 55-barrel brewing system that can produce 95,000 barrels of beer a year. Unfortunately for most of us, they only distribute to Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Despite the difficulty in acquiring Ninkasi, I managed to get my greedy little hands on a bottle of their nectar, er, beer.
Vanilla Oatis (7.2% ABV) an oatmeal stout brewed with vanilla.
It pours a dark sable brown with ruby highlights with a full, dense head that leaves behind nice layers of clinging foam.
The aroma is of roasted malt, dried dark fruits, and some alcohol.
That taste is malty tinged with dark roasted coffee and cocoa. I didn't pick up much vanilla. The sweetness was tempered by the roasted grain and mild hops and balanced by a nice biscuit quality. The brew was somewhat tart which was interesting and I'm not sure where that was coming from. The finish is roasty and bitter.
The mouth feel was lighter than expected but creamy. The carbonation was lively and left a bit of a tingle.
Vanilla Oatis didn't blow me away but it was a decent stout. I'm looking forward to trying some of their other beers.
Overall: good
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