Time For Some Milk
Continuing down the trail of Stout reviews I decided to try a Milk Stout from Longmont, Colorado’s Left Hand Brewing. Milk Stouts have a higher percentage of unfermented sugars in them, usually lactose, that help give the beer a sweetness that counters the strong roasted character of Stouts. I haven’t had many Milk Stouts so I was interested to see how Left Hand’s effort tasted:
The left hand Milk Stout is a nice variation on the Stouts I’ve been drinking lately. It had a nice slightly sweet flavor that did cut through the roasted malt. There wasn’t a ton of coffee or chocolate flavor components in this beer like many of my recent reviews. It’s a good, basic Stout with a touch of sweetness and extra body. The flavor and aroma isn’t real complex which hurt the score a little. This is still a very good beer though. It’s easy drinking to boot. I would have no problems recommending this Milk Stout. Try it!
Here’s the score
1. Appearance- 7 points (out of 10)
2. Smell- 7 points (out of 10)
3. Taste- 16 points (out of 20)
4. Drinkability- 9 points (out of 10)
Total 39 (out of 50) Points- 4 Mugs
ABV 5.2%
Approximate Calories: 160-187 (12 oz)
Ah, I have a bottle of this at home waiting to be opened (it seems that Left Hand’s beers can be found not just coast-to-coast but beyond – at least as far as the UK!). I’m in the mood for it now after watching the review. I had a bottle of their “Imperial Stout” a few nights ago and thought it was pretty good, and I’m very fond of “Blackjack Porter”.
I’ve noticed quite a few familiar beers among your recent reviews. Young’s “Double Chocolate Stout” is one of my favourite British stouts (never seen the canned version, though), as is Samuel Smith’s “Oatmeal Stout”. And, since I live about a hundred miles up the road from Dublin, Guinness is ubiquitous around my way (which makes it easy to get rather fed up with it).
A few months after you reviewed Rogue’s “Shakespeare Stout” last year, a batch of it showed up in the UK, so I was able to get my hands on quite a few bottles (I had another glass of the exquisite stuff last night, in fact). I have my fingers crossed that this pattern continues with the “Chocolate Stout”!
Hi Michael,
Left Hand does seem to get around, except for parts of California I guess. I’ve been fairly happy with all of their beers so far. I need to review the porter though.
I’ve got a few more Stouts coming up, hopefully you can try all of them as well!
Cheers!
another great review. i’ll check it out Milk Stout when i get a chance.
btw, leaving in a few hours for the Bistro DIPA festival up in San Francisco. over 50 double ipa’s on tap including PLINY THE YOUNGER! never had it before.
will let you know how it goes.
-cheers
A DIPA festival? Now that sounds like fun! I expect a full report, especially on what you thought of Pliny
Love this beer, the mouthfeel is so silky smooth. This is a great beer to pair with a good maduro cigar, for those that are into enjoying a nice stogie
I could see where a nice Stout would go great with a good cigar. I used to smoke them every once in a while a long time ago. I guess I’ve had some great ones including a real Cuban that a buddy smuggled back from Jamaica, which was pretty darn good. They were great while smoking them but the “aftertaste” the next day was kind of rough for me.
ok. so the Bistro DIPA festival up in Hayward, CA was AMAZING!!! i highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good double IPA. this was the tenth anniversary of the festival, and my first time there. this year they had over 50 beers on tap, i guess it gets a little bit bigger every year, (i believe they only had about 10 or 12 beers in the early years of the festival.)
This guy was nice enough to post a sheet of all the beers that were in attendance….
http://ethanprater.com/10th-annual-bistro-double-ipa-festival/bistro-dipa-festival-2010-02-06/
$35 bucks got you the commemorative glass with 5 free tasters. but at some point, maybe around 5 o’clock, (things were a little fuzzy at this point), they just stopped collecting tickets, so it was a free for all. i must have tasted at least 20-25 different beers, all ranging from good to OUTSTANDING. but really there wasn’t a bad beer in the bunch. some of my favorites were: Ninkasi Tricerahops, Pizza Port Welcome Back Wipeout, Rubicon Hop Sauce, Bear Republic 11, and Green Flash’s Pallet Wrecker.
But of course the beer everyone was talking about all day was Pliny the Younger. i was worried that after so much hype it just wouldn’t live up to my expectations. but thankfully, i was wrong. this is an extraordinary beer. even after A LOT of really strong ipa’s, this one stands out in the bunch. the smell is sublime, pine, hops, citrus sweetness. at one point i put my taster of PTY down on the table, and i was still getting whiffs of it 3 feet from my nose, it’s that pungent. the taste is out of this world. the only word that keeps coming into my head that accurately describes it, is “pops”. it pops in your mouth with each sip. just a nice pleasant well balanced hop assault on your tongue. and just like the reviews had told me, prior to me trying it for myself, this stuff is insanely drinkable. if it wasn’t for the 11% abv you could just sit there all day putting it down, it’s that good. of course, they ran out of PTY around 4 o’clock, but Vinnie and the RR guys up in Santa Rosa sent down another keg in the back of a pick up truck, which brought out a nice cheer from the crowd.
anyway it was a blast! i highly recommend checking it out next year if you can. it’s in Hayward about 20 minutes from downtown San Fran. i drove up from LA, and plan to again next year. it happens during san fransisco beer week so there are a bunch of beer events throughout the city all week long. good times!
oh, here were the winners:
Gold: Pizza Port Carlsbad, Welcome Back Wipeout
Silver: Rubicon Sacramento, Hop Sauce
Bronze: Triple Rock Berkeley, IIMAXX Imperial IPA
Peoples Choice: Russian River Santa Rosa, Pliny the Younger
Thanks for the detailed report! It sounds like a great event. I’d love to be able to make it out there someday. Who knows, next year might be doable.