Hopry Short # 10 | Firestone Walker | Velvet Merlin | 5.5% ABV
Oatmeal Stout | Paso Robles, California | Rating: 83/100
It can be a bit daunting when a beer is new enough that there really isn’t all that much out there to compare your experience too, but that is definitely the case with Firestone Walker’s Velvet Merlin. Released October 1st – this is a brand spankin’ new beer to the scene, and just in time for fall. It pours a clear, very dark ruby color with a nice tall khaki brown head. The aroma is that of strong coffee with cream, and don’t call me crazy but I also picked up a bit of toasted coconut hiding in there somewhere. When the first sip hit, I immediately understood the “Velvet” part of the name. It is very smooth and frothy, but for me it is surprisingly thin on the palate. The taste is full of roasted coffee and baking chocolate, and part of the batch was aged in bourbon barrels. Having said that, this was one aspect I didn’t pick up in either the aromas or taste. Altogether this would be a great winter session beer and with the limited distribution that this one has, I was happy to give it a shot in the quickly cooling off Midwest.
Up Next: The Bruery Orchard White
Others: Schlafly Coffee Stout, New Holland The Poet, Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout
Check out all sessions of The Hopry here.
This beer can be found in these states.
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Posted by Jon on October 20, 2010 at 10:51 AM
I just had this on cask on Saturday and loved it. I’ll need to track down a bottle or two to see how the experience changes.
Posted by Tim Pratt on October 20, 2010 at 2:01 PM
If you find that the experience you had on cask was different than in a bottle I would love to see your thoughts comparing the two. That one bottle was my only experience with this, and i’m quite interested to hear other thoughts on this one!
Tim Pratt
Posted by Jon on October 21, 2010 at 9:47 PM
Picked up a couple bottles tonight and it’s not as enjoyable as the cask. Definitely not as smooth and not as rich as the cask experience. Still a good beer, but I’ll probably skip the bottles if given other choices.
Posted by Jon on November 7, 2010 at 9:15 PM
I was able to have the cask again tonight at Stone and was extremely happy with the experience again. This is one I think they should have skipped bottling. I drank this all night at Stone, but see no need to pick up another bottle.
Posted by thehopry on October 20, 2010 at 3:38 PM
I would love to try this one on nitro. I bet it would make it even more velvety. And that’s likely to happen one day since we should be getting Firestone Walker in Missouri soon.
Posted by Louie on October 20, 2010 at 1:04 PM
I love oatmeal stouts and I love Velvet Merlin. I am beginning to really appreciate the incredible clarity, balance, and subtlety of Firestone Walker’s lineup – these beers are great at about 55 degrees, too. I am all for a good dirty, chewy oatmeal stout, but for some reason, I find Velvet Merlin very appealing.
Posted by thehopry on October 20, 2010 at 1:46 PM
Hey Louie –
They do have very good balance in their beers. I was able to drink one of the samples that FW sent us, and (like Tim) feel that it was a bit thin on the palate. But for a standard 5% beer there is a lot of flavor going on in this one. If I had to compare this to some of the 5% stouts out there, I’d say this is pretty damn good. Definitely light years ahead of Guiness. Can’t wait to open the behemoth called Parabola in a year or so. I bet that thing will cause fireworks.
Mark Starr
Posted by Tim Pratt on October 20, 2010 at 1:58 PM
Mark hit my thoughts exactly – maybe I am now just accustomed to beers with overall higher gravity, but I would have loved for this to have a bit more body and for the bourbon aging to shine through just a bit more. But with that said, there is enough flavor and drinkability in this thing to make a great winter session.
Posted by theReaper16 on October 20, 2010 at 5:03 PM
Tim, you seem to be decidedly “harsher” in terms of grading than Mark is. I approve of this.
Posted by Louie on October 20, 2010 at 5:14 PM
I think Mark’s grades have been pretty accurate. After all, a majority of the reviews are of incredible beers – so far, at least. Nothing wrong with that.
Posted by thehopry on October 20, 2010 at 8:51 PM
Barry/Louie –
You’re both right actually. I have reviewed some amazing beers – and amazing beers deserve amazing scores. However, Tim and I have discussed being a touch more critical with our scores because it’s time to start reviewing beers that aren’t necessarily face-melters…though those will still make plenty of appearances on the site.
Mark Starr
Posted by Jamison Moeckel on October 23, 2010 at 5:09 PM
thin? I have to disagree it could not bring more flavor for 5.5% its got more flavor then some imperial stouts.
Posted by thehopry on October 23, 2010 at 8:44 PM
Texture and flavor are separate here, though. There is definitely a lot of flavor in this beer – I don’t think anyone is arguing that. But the mouthfeel is a touch watery.
Mark Starr
Posted by Jamison Moeckel on October 24, 2010 at 7:15 PM
ok so I guess what your saying is a low ABV beer can never get a good score I love your reviews mark but I have to strongly disagree you are marking it down because of mouth feel?? let me ask you how many points is a thicker mouth worth? if there was ever a beer that was low abv and had huge flavor and huge taste and both are great it would be this one. I strongly disagree with your score on this beer mouth feel is from making the beer higher abv and you can’t grade it down because its not an imperial odd score really it is.
This and hopslam the only beers I really disagree with you. I have to tell you because I feel strongly about it.
Posted by Jamison Moeckel on October 24, 2010 at 7:23 PM
and BTW 9 times out of 10 when a reviewer is talking about water they are talking about taste not mouth feel. To me mouth on this is at least medium. Have you had 1 each and made your grade? I have gotten to know the beer and the beer is fantastic better then what I expected.
Posted by thehopry on October 24, 2010 at 8:59 PM
Jamison –
Suggesting that we would never give a lower ABV beer a good score is inaccurate. There are numerous non-imperial beers on this site that have received great scores. Our scores are based on our opinions and experiences only, and I personally scrutinize every review and score before it’s posted.
In this case, I agree with Tim’s assessment of Velvet Merlin. And no, it did not get an 83 because of mouthfeel alone. It is a good beer, but it’s not a 90+ beer for us. Why you (or anyone else) would think 83/100 is a bad score is beyond me.
To give you a slightly different perspective, Firestone Walker sent us this beer to review. It would have been easy to give it a 90+ score because we felt obligated or because we just want them to continue sending us free beer. I have too much integrity to do that.
As for the Hopslam, I can’t help you there. It’s a perfect beer to me. End of story. Regardless, I want to thank you for your candid and honest feedback. I really do appreciate it and am happy to discuss any of the reviews here because I stand behind all of the content on the site.
Mark Starr
Posted by Jamison Moeckel on November 5, 2010 at 10:27 PM
83 is not a bad score Just a bad score for this beer, this beer is better then an 83 in my opinion. Thats all, we don’t agree on this one or Hop Slam. You have to admit in the beer world higher ABV beers tend to do better on scores. Look at the BA top 100 if you are not sure about that. We will agree to disagree here. It would be a boring world if everyone agreed with every review anyways.