Left Hand Milk Stout

Dark and delicious, America's great milk stout will change your perception about what a stout can be. Preconceived notions are the blinders on the road to enlightenment. 'Udderly' delightful.   I haven't had a Milk Stout before so I'm pretty excited to try this one.   Still getting a bit used to the darker beers, so my hopes aren't too high on this one.   Low expectations going in might mean a high reward.  Far more malts are present in this beer than hops so it shouldn't be very bitter.   IBUs sit at 25 and the ABV sits at 6%.  I feel a 6% ABV is rather low for a stout.  Left Hand Milk Stout has one quite a few awards at various beer festivals and a lot of those awards have been golds.   So it's widely considered a very good brew.


On with the show.

A:  Pours with very black body an off white head.. Not completely black as there is a bit of red hue present along the edges..    The head disappeared completely on me within seconds.  A quick swirl reveals that the beer does leave quite a bit of lacing on the glass, although that too slides down back into the beer fairly quickly.  Just based on the appearance it seems a little bit more watery than I would thought.


S:  Heavy uo front on the roasted malt scent..  I'm having a hard time smelling the chocolate or coffee that some claim to find in this brew.   A tinge of sweetness follows the roasted malts..   A sweet milk like scent.  I guess the proper terminology would be "lactic notes."  That milk scent isn't powerful by any means, but it is there. 


T:  Definite roasted malts up front on the taste although not as heavy as the scent would indicate.  It's actually much more well balanced than I would have though based on the scent.  The roasted malts quickly give away to a mild sweet cream flavor.   There's also a bit of a fig taste to the beer that seems to be mixed in with the cream flavor.   They seem to hit you at about the same time.  The finish on the beer is kind of hard for me to put my finger on.   A get this slight twinge of sourness, almost like spoiled milk, but it quickly goes away and leaves the roasted malt flavor.


M:  Low to medium bodied with little to no carbonation present.   I expected this beer to be much more full bodied even after I claimed that I felt the appearance did seem a bit watery.


D:  Definitely a very drinkable beer.  I wouldn't call it sessionable though due to the sweetness.   Seems like after 2 of these I wouldn't want anymore.


Grade:  One thumb up.   It's a good beer, not a great beer.   The awkward spoiled milk like taste was a bit of a turn off although not enough to ruin the experience of the beer.