Review: Milk Stout – Aledvent Calendbeer 12
Beer: Milk Stout
Brewery: Left Hand Brewing Company
Type: Stout
Served: Bottled
Alc: 6.0% Vol
Aledvent Calendbeer: 12
Well this is a stretch, but for Christmas you might send or receive a charity package to a third world country. Often, this will be in the form of you buying a cow for a village. Cows produce milk, so Ale to the King brings you Milk Stout by Left Hand Brewing Company as its 12th Aledvent Calendbeer.
In colour it’s pitch black with a incredibly light brown head that dissipates quickly.
The nose has the typical coffee notes as most stouts but there’s that hint of black, industrial rubber that’s appeared on stouts before.
On the foretaste you’re going to find that coffee again, but its going to be tempered with slight spices and rum on the foretaste, similar to the more overtly rummy Innis and Gunn Rum Cask.
This merges into a very peppary mid-taste and, appropriately enough, notes of full-cream milk. The milk lasts into the after-taste but seems to recede before coming to the fore after a while. You really only get a subtle hint before it seems to pop out at you. The mid to after-taste is also mixed with a sticky taste of a deep honey, the kind that seems nearly a deep red in colour.
Its a very punchy beer that delivers a real blow to the taste-buds. Its not a wrecking ball of a beer like some stouts, but its certainly not delicate. In all its a well-rounded beer, quite warming at this time of year, with a nice combination of subtle notes. However these come together to create an impact that outweighs the sum of its parts. A good choice if you’re after something to warm your innards this cold festive season.
Ale to the King. 