Milk Stouts, hmmm.

The other night at Winking Lizard, I tried my first Milk Stout (by Lefthand). It was surprisingly good -- smooth, slightly sweet, with a creamy aftertaste. It was as if someone put milk in my Edmund Fitzegerald.

The milk stout (also commonly known as sweet stout or cream stout) comes from England. The sweetness comes from the addition of lactose, a sugar derived from milk, in the brewing process. Lactose cannot be fermented by yeast, so it adds body, sweetness, and calories to a finished beer.

The interesting thing was that the milk stout was first produced to be very nutritious, and it was given to nursing mothers. John Henry Johnson sought for the first patent on milk beer in 1875, based on whey, lactose, and hops. Mackenson's was the first brewery to acquire patents to produce it in 1910.

Milk stouts are known as a 'dessert beer' or a 'breakfast beer.' The taste compliments chocolates, or breakfast foods such as eggs or breakfast meats.

Some examples of milk or cream stouts include:

Sam Adams cream stout
Mackeson Triple XXX Stout
Lefthand Milk Stout
St Peter's Cream Stout
Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout
Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout
Snowplow Milk Stout by Widmer Brothers
Portland Thunderhead Cream Stout
Lancaster Milk Stout
Keegan Mothers Milk Stout
Lake Louie Milk Stout
Dark Horse Too Cream Stout
Bell's Special Double Cream Stout

Other sweet stouts:

Young's Double Chocolate Stout
Bell's Kalamazoo Stout
Matt's Saranac Stout
Carlton Sheaf Stout
Carib Royal Extra Stout
Matt's Saranac Mocha Stout

Hmm, I feel like a beer right now.