Ballast Point Nitro Red Velvet

Ballast Point Nitro Red Velvet, golden oatmeal stout with beets, chocolate and natural flavors added. 5.5% ABV. Ballast Point Brewing, San Diego, CA.Bright crimson coloring, with a slim, pink head. Definitely an individual look here.

In the nose: Interesting. Sweet, vegetal, fruity. Is it the beets? I'm getting a resemblance of cherry-like cake frosting in this, which must surely be their intention.

In the mouth: Huh. If they meant to make a beer that's like red velvet cake, though I'm not an expert on the stuff, I'd say they came pretty damned close. (I don't eat a lot of cake, sorry Marie Antoinette.) Smooth, light bodied, silky and sweet. Tasty stuff, for sure. But strange. Golden oatmeal stout, they say? Never heard of such a thing. What the heck is it? It doesn't taste much like an oatmeal stout. The beets were added for color, I've been told, not for flavor.

This is an interesting beer, but I'm not sure what to think of it. It's been getting raves, but I don't see it as more than a gimmick. An interesting one, a fun one, but not much more than that.

I feel like an old, buddy-duddy by not getting whipped up into a frenzy about this one. I want my beers to taste like beers, not cake. Ugh.