PDubyah: Beer - #445 - Boundary Road - Arabica Dabra Coffee Oatmeal Stout

Beer with long comedy name time - Boundary Road Arabica Dabra Coffee Oatmeal Stout. A gift from my wife for something or other. She's frugal so this wouldn't have been expensive. Bless.

"Coffee Oatmeal Stout - Rich oatmeal stout with Arabica coffee"

Not, in my opinion, strictly a 'craft' beer but that's a whole different debate This is brewed by Independent Breweries NZ (Boundary Road) this on in the style of a Stout and they are based in Papakura, Auckland, New Zealand.

This bottle contains beer that is 6.5% ABV, 500ml, 195 calories, and 2.3 standard drink units in NZ

Arabica is one of the most popular types of coffee. Not only does it have a delicious, invigorating taste, but it also helps you avoid boring things, like sleeping. We like it so much we’ve added it as an ingredient to make a dark, rich coffee oatmeal stout that’s perfect for your next beer break. We’ve called it Arabica Dabra. Sadly, rubbing it won’t result in a genie, but you will get a slightly shinier bottle.

What could go wrong?

There is a fair amount of coffee aroma on opening this, of course.

Lovely pour, great coffee aroma, nice mocha brown head, that is both fully, full and persistent.

Boundary Road - Arabica Dabra Coffee Oatmeal Stout

This leads to an interesting mouthful of beer, nice level of bitterness and a wash of coffee. Not sure if the bitterness is from the coffee, I'm guessing it is.

I'm pleasantly surprised by how mellow this is, and how this has struck a nice point in a profile that makes it easy to enjoy.

It does though lack a couple of things that you might expect in a stout. One of them is the rich malt notes that should be in the middle, and so the body is a bit thinner than I might otherwise enjoy.

Did I mention that I thought this was a nice beer? For a 'commercial' beer, and the price this is I think I'd have few qualms in having this in the fridge for the days you need a stout.

Ideally would need to be enjoyed with some food of some sympathetic kind, I think that the father-in-law might enjoy it too

MrsPdubyah did ok with this one, picked in her criteria of 'price' and "because", making it 2 from 2 of late, her last effort being the Russian Lager.

It was kind of an Amy Winehouse afternoon\early evening, and so a few of those songs got played including this "You Know I'm No Good"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-I2s5zRbHg

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 a of its things from the thing. I know right, commercial beer gets my 'great' scrore in the arbitrary way of things. Because frankly this is a bit good as it goes, and stout or dark beer lovers would enjoy and appreciate that this isn't the challenge of some other stouts that are heavily roasted malt and alcohol laden.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? Surprisingly and pleasantly yes I am.

Would I have another? Yes, I'd actually go and get another if I wasn't so lazy

Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Yes I think I'd even share this with Father-In-Law, and that's a high bar.

STOUT

Many stouts do not fit the classic "Irish" definition as exemplified by Guinness, either due to their hop or roast rates, or higher gravity (in the case of many American stouts). They are still basic stouts, however, not falling into any of the subclasses.