Terrapin Wake 'n' Bake Oatmeal Imperial Coffee Stout

As I mentioned earlier, I'm doing more trading to get brews from further away, so that this blog is not completely dominated by beers I can buy here in Minnesota or pick up in neighboring Wisconsin. A look at my stats revealed that, by number of reviews, the top states in the union represented at the Bitter Nib are #5), Michigan, #4, Colorado, #3, California, #2, Wisconisn, and #1, no big surprise, Minnnesota, with over 130 beers represented from my home state. (This is from number of tags, there's still the matter of whether those tags are accurate, or if they all represent a beer. But let's not worry about that. Though, by nature of having mentioned it, you know that I have already.)

(And I know that statistics are only entertaining to fellow nerds, but I can't help myself. Don't worry, it'll be over soon.)

There are a total of 33 states included in the Nib, and 17 missing at this point (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming). Wait, scratch that, for my most recent trade for North Carolina beers was with a gentleman from Georgia, who included two of his locals, one of which I'd had before. This was from a trade six years ago, and I noted that the original name of the beer was missing from the label. This time, it reappears as an abbreviation, "W'n'B". I'm not sure who's objecting, but do they think the "bake" means more than cookies? Not sure about that.

Anyway, off we go with notes from May, 2006:


Impenetrable brown hue, here, with toasted cocoa foam above, though it slips away too quickly.

Deep aromatics, rich and roasty, unfathomable, lightly bittersweet, yielding some oatmeal tones, but not much from coffee. Likable, though.

Taste: everything you'd want from a stout. Creamy, sumptuous, slick, thick, abounding with chocolate and coffee flavors, wrapped up in malty delciousness. And just when I think it's mainly cocoa, the coffee tips in for a bit. Like a two-step, these flavors jump in and out, showing themselves in succession.

Rich and luxuriant, this Wake and Bake (Oddly, these words are missing from the label...wonder why?). I like it. Very tasty, and a dream to drink.

Yum, yum...way to go, Terrapin, you kooky turtles!