Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro Bottle - Left Hand Brewing Company

    Left Hand Milk Stout is made by Left Hand Brewing Company located in Longmont, Colorado. An entire case of this special version of the Left Hand Milk Stout was brought back to Indiana by some good friends of mine after holiday break.

    I usually don't spend more than one or two sentences on how a beer pours, but this Stout is special. Unlike most canned or bottled nitro pour beers, this bottle has no weird plastic widget or wand inside to assist in the smooth pouring of the liquid from the bottle. Instead, to quote my good friend, you "pour it like a three-year-old" into a glass and it pours perfectly. I have heard that Left Hand Brewing Company will not divulge any information as to how they manage to make the beer pour so well without a widget. I'd try to find it out myself, but I'm afraid that if they told me, they'd have to kill me. Either that, or force me to bottle all their beer by hand (any homebrewer knows this punishment would be a fate worse than death.)

     After a rough pour, the beer begins to cascade beautifully. The nitrogen bubbles slowly collect at the top of the glass to form a creamy tan head that is incredibly dense. This has to be the coolest pour of a beer that I have seen so far, hence the video.

 

Try pouring any other beer like this and you'll have a major mess to clean up...

   Once I stopped watching the beer cascade and prepared to drink it I found that the Milk Stout smells chocolatey with a good bit of coffee roasted malt scent. There is a slightly sweet aroma to the beer as well.

    The first flavors to hit the tongue are sweet and lightly coffee-like. I was not surprised by this mix of flavors after smelling the Stout. There is only the slightest bit of bitterness in the beer. The lactose sweetness sticks around after swallowing the beer, making sure what bitterness there is does not stick around as an after-taste.

    At 6% ABV, I expected there to be at least a little bit of alcohol warmth to the beer, but no warmth nor alcohol taste is perceptible. The tiny nitrogen bubbles used to carbonate this beer make it such a smooth and creamy experience. After experiencing the nitro-pour version of this beer I'm afraid I could never try the CO2 carbonated version again.

    Overall I would say that the Left Hand Milk Stout is a great example of the style of beer that it represents. I tend to be turned off by Stouts that taste too much like coffee, but this Stout comes out just right. I have had the non-nitro version of the beer and while it is still good, the nitro-pour makes this beer so much better.

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Special Thanks to Drew and Whitney Sayer for bringing me a case of Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro Pour from Colorado!