'This English style of beer, also known as Sweet Stout or Cream Stout, first appeared in London in the late 1800’s. The early brewers touted the health benefits of the milk sugar in this beer which today relates mainly to the increased amount of calories (no real health benefits…sorry). The milk sugar adds a well rounded sweetness to this dark beer and makes it an outstanding, year ‘round stout.'Milk stouts have a fairly storied past, actually. In England, where they originated from, nursing mothers drank milk stouts because it was so 'nutritious'. Advertising made claims of 'healthy calories'. Calling a beer a 'milk stout' became illegal in England in 1945 because all a milk stout makes you is fat, not healthy. To make up for this I just took some vitamins with mine, so its fortified (right?).
You really can taste the powdered milk in this beer. It makes for a smoother stout than I am used to, a tasty stout. The usual suspects are all there- chocolate, coffee, malts but the milk and sugar round out the whole drink. Left hand did a great job with this beer. I have only had a few in my life but I am now quite sure that I am a fan of milk stouts. Huzzah.
Musical Pairing: The Church- Starfish (yeah, because of 'Under the Milky Way', I admit it)
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6 comments:
I think there is no milk in this beer but rather the beer was primed with milk sugar (a type of sugar not made from milk)to give it a bit more sweetness. The Left Hand web site explains that.
It's pretty strong still... Actually I found that this beer coated my throat and made it harder to drink other beers after it.
I enjoyed this beer but had it a couple of weeks ago when it was 90 w/ 100% humidity, I felt like Ron Burgandy in Anchorman...Milk (stout) was a bad choice.
I have had the Left Hand Milk Stout once and really enjoyed it. As a homebrewer, if I had to guess the stout was probably sweetened with lactose. Lactose is a non-fermentable sugar and can be used to add sweetness and flavor to a beer that won't be fermented out by the yeast. And yes, if you taste powdered lactose, it is kind of milky.
This is all getting scientific, I enjoy it.
I can't wait to do some homebrewing, its the next step in my beer education.
Homebrewing definitely raised my appreciation for beer. Having an understanding of how the ingredients work with each other and really seeing how diverse the realm of beer is is very cool. I will warn you that starting homebrewing is a slippery slope. It starts with a reasonable affordable kit and then you wind up building a kegerator or moving to all-grain brewing and you are constantly upgrading your setup.. it's almost a disease that you will never want cured. :-)
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