Brainstormed brew - Oreo stout that sells out

By Steve Graham

Oreo Strata Stout
Style: Stout aged on Oreo cookies
Brewery: Fossil Craft
Location: Colorado Springs
IBU: 26
ABV: 5.1 percent
Photo: Angie Wright

Some nights, a round of drunken brainstorming only leads to illegible scribbles and plans that fall apart faster than a Jenga tower. Other times, it can lead to an Oreo-flavored beer that sells out within hours.

Josh Mater, head brewer and co-owner of Fossil Craft Beer Company in Colorado Springs, gives his co-owners full credit (and a little teasing) for drunken brainstorming their way into the Oreo Strata Stout, one of the company’s most popular brews.

“Some of our other founders were sitting there at the bar one night,” Mater said. “They were beyond sober and spouting out ideas and talking about how good cookies are. That led to how good cookies and milk are. That transitioned to ‘let’s put some Oreo cookies in a beer.’”

So they poured Oreos into a barrel and added their standard stout, then let the flavors blend for about a month.

“We brew our stout normally, and after fermentation, we crash it and drop the yeast out,” Mater said. “Then we age it on Oreos for three to four weeks. … When it gets to a point where we think it tastes good, we put it on tap.”

He has gradually added more Oreos with each batch “just to see how far I can take that flavor,” but thinks he has arrived at the optimal Oreo level.

“I usually make a half-barrel and it takes six or seven pounds of Oreos to get that chocolate vanilla flavor,” he said.

The formula seems to work.

“There’s a line out the door every time we make it, and it sells out that night,” Mater said. “It has become a local must-have, which is kind of cool.”

Mater says it even attracts some folks who don’t like their beer black and heady. “I’m not a huge stout kind of guy but it’s one of the stouts I absolutely love,” he said.

One Untappd user wrote that the Oreo stout was “absolutely phenomenal. Oreo wasn’t over powering. It was very subtle. Absolutely delicious.”

Mater said he might eventually start making the Oreo stout available outside the brewery.

“It’s one of those beers that if we ever wanted to transition to bottling, it would go really well in a bomber,” he said.

Mater had a decade of home-brewing experience in Colorado Springs and his native Houston, and turned the hobby into a business. “We thought we could make as good or better beer than what was offered,” he said.

He and his wife opened Fossil Craft in 2014 with Rich and Katrina Benson

The name Fossil Craft refers to both the nearby fossil beds and their goal of “unearthing” classic and perhaps largely forgotten beer styles.

Fossil Craft also makes other creative brews including a porter steeped in a chai tea blend from their neighbors at High Rise Coffee Roasters, and the Strawberry Camarasaurus, a light cream ale aged on 42 pounds of strawberries.

Steve Graham is a Fort Collins writer who enjoys the outdoors and great beers.