Both beers came out great! My chocolate oatmeal stout pours with a short, cream colored head that tends to settle a little early due to the cocoa powder added to the wort. A brandy snifter is really the only way you can see the dark caramel color at the edges of the otherwise opaque brew. It has a toasty, chocolatey aroma with very subtle hoppy undertones. This beer taste just like it smells; slightly sweet at first from the roasted grains followed by a mild chocolate flavor. The oats give a smooth mouthfeel making this high gravity stout almost too easy to drink. There is also a very satisfyingly bitter finish from the hops and cocoa that beckon you to take another sip.
Athena's honey brown ale has been the crowd favorite, and for good reason; I'll let her go into detail with her own review, but I'll still give a quick rundown. It pours with a solid head typical of an English brown ale that keeps well throughout while drinking. The roasted grains give it a slightly cloudy but deep caramel color through the center of a pint glass. The aroma hops give it a citrusy bouquet and keep the bitterness to a minimum which lets the sweet malty taste of this beer shine through. Athena used 2 cups of honey that really cut through the bitterness of the flavoring hops to make this beer my new favorite brown ale. This one's a keeper and I'm sure we'll have a batch going year round.
