Milk Route Stout
Austin Brothers Beer Company in Alpena, Michigan, United States 🇺🇸
Stout - Milk / Sweet Rotating|
Score
6.97
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Canned 10/4/24, drunk 12/1/24. Dark. Large, light tan head, good retention in clumps. Licorice, dark chocolate, bit of lactose but it's not milky or lactic. Just sort of table sugary, though it's melded with the roast and chocolate. Good aroma strength. Clean. Soft and lightly grainy with sweet lactose balanced by dark chocolate, moderate roast and lingering fudgey vanilla. Good deal of flavor for its size without any gross lactic character or excessive sweetness. Fizzy, unpleasant carbonation is a drawback.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
12 ounce bottle into pint glass, bottled on 8/17/2017. Pours crystal clear very dark brown color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of milk chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, nuttiness, vanilla, cream, and toasted dark bread; with light notes of smoke, dark fruit, herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/roast/bready malt, lactose, and light earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of milk chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, nuttiness, vanilla, cream, and toasted dark bread; with light notes of smoke, dark fruit, herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness. Mild herbal hop and roast malt bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of milk chocolate, cocoa, coffee, caramel, nuttiness, vanilla, cream, toasted dark bread, light smoke/herbal, and roast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, lactose, and light earthy hop flavors; with a great roast/hop bitter/sweet balance, and zero cloying/acrid flavors after the finish. Slightly increasing dryness from hop/roast bitterness. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately creamy/bready/grainy, and slightly sticky/chalky mouthfeel that is nice. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 5.4%. Overall this is a very nice milk stout. All around nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/roast/bready malt, lactose, and light earthy hop flavors; very smooth and easy to drink with the mildly bitter finish. Well rounded stout malt complexity, nice lactose sugar presence, and mild balancing hops against sweetness. A very enjoyable offering, and textbook style example.