Solemn Oath Combat Marshmallow

Brewed By: Solemn Oath Brewing in Naperville, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Pellys Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2013 

Style/ABV: Black IPA/American Double Stout, 8.0%

Reported IBUs: 76

Tonight's review is going to be super lazy because I am le tired. About Solemn Oath:

Solemn Oath is a brewery based out of Naperville, IL, and was founded in 2012 by brothers John and Joe Barley, and former Rock Bottom employee Tim Marshall. Marshall's experience was with Belgian-style beers and barrel aging. After John and Tim scouted out the location, they began to install the brewery and on-site taproom. The first brew day was on April 21, 2012. Prior to that, the brewery signed a distribution deal with the Windy City Distribution, and launched three beers during the Chicago Craft Beer Week in 2012. The brewery already has expanded, adding additional barrels (up to 3,200 barrels) in January 2013. The brewery recently started bottling their beers in late 2013, and they have an on-site taproom where you can get a beer, grab some food from one of the many food trucks that stops by, and watch them brew their beer on site. For more information, definitely check out the brewery's ABOUT page or main website.

The Combat Marshmallow is part of Solemn Oath's limited release of bottled beers. This big, roasty, malty beer, features notes of dark chocolate and coffee balanced by resinous, piney hops. Punching in at 8.0% ABV and 76 IBUs, this one is available on tap and in limited release bottles.

Solemn Oath Combat Marshmallow

This beer pours into an inky black body...I'm a little surprised, but the beer doesn't have the viscosity of an Impy Stout. The beer kicks up three-plus fingers of dark brown/mocha/coffee-colored head. Things look much the same in bright light...the beer remains opaque, and the head retention is nice. There's some sticky lacing, and the head looks like that of a Black IPA. Onward!

The aroma leans towards the Stout side of a Black IPA, with intense leather, chocolate, cocoa, roast, ash/dirt/campfire, coffee, and some roasty campfire marshmallow. I'm getting some dusty cacao and some meaty roast as well. Beneath all the roast and intense chocolate streaks is some serious resin, pine, and citrus sap. There are definitely hops in this beer. There are some bready kisses as well, biscuit? Yum.

Okay so wow. I was expecting this to taste a lot more hoppy based on some of the reviews I saw on Untappd, but this beer is much more on the Stout side of things. I'm almost tempted to say this is more Stout than Black IPA, ergo just a Stout. You get a lot of leather, coffee, chocolate, dusty cocoa and cacao, earth, ash, and campfire marshmallow up front. I see where the beer's name came from. There's also a milky, sugary, lactose aspect that I can't quite place. Beneath all the Stout goodness is tons of resinous pine, pine sap, and sticky hop oil. The whole thing is rounded out with some bready biscuit and citrus hops, and the finish is a mix of dry and sticky citrus hops, and roasted malts. It's a big, bold beer.

This is a thick, oily, full-bodied beer. It drinks like a hop milkshake, but the carbonation and sugars help round things out. The duration on this beer is fantastic, and there's a lot of stuff going on. However, the big bold flavors seem straightforward enough, and I can't in good faith say this is overly complex? I don't know. I'm not complaining. This actually drinks a bit bigger than its 8.0% shoes, and definitely falls into that "sipper" category. It really is the perfect winter beer. When in Rome...

You get rich chocolate, cocoa, dusty cacao, earthy roast, coffee, ash/dirt, and campfire marshmallow up front; that rolls into roast and growing dirt/coffee bitterness, and then the pine sap and resin kicks in. The back end is all about the pine, pine sap, lingering roast and ash, and the beer finishes roasty and dry with lingering hops. The beer is rounded out by biscuit/bread and citrus hops, and features a nice depth of malt. It's like: Milk Stout, Imperial Stout, Black IPA, IPA, Black IPA...in that order.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. I'm really enjoying this...this beer has a ton of big flavors, and you get lots of chocolate, ash/campfire, and hoppy goodness. The beer is complex and has great palate depth. This is a Winter football sipper, and would pair well with dark chocolate, strong cheeses, a burger with mushrooms, steak with mushrooms, and salisbury steak. I recommend picking this up if you find a bottle, or hitting it up on tap.

Random Thought: This is a very good beer, and I'm a bit surprised with some of the reviews on Untappd. I understand that Black IPAs are a challenging style, but this is a well executed beer. I hope Solemn Oath brews this again, because yeah. Good stuff.