Left Hand Brewing Company's Milk Stout

Tonight I'm enjoying a beer from the Left Hand Brewing Company. Check out the website it's looks to be a good one. Watch out for the crazy verify age page before you can access the site. It's extremely difficult to beat. I believe you simply click "YES." It's very tricky. Left Hand Brewing Company is out of Longmont, CO which is just outside of Denver I believe. Right in the brewery breadbasket that I described from my summer travels. Anyways Left Hand has a really cool story about how they began. I would check it out.

It looks a little flat with no head but I probably poured it wrong

The point of all this of course is to discuss the Milk Stout. This style is kind of similar to the Imperial Stout I discussed the other day but much less intense. The official style is termed a Sweet Stout. Here are the stats from Left Hand's Website:

Style -- Sweet Stout
Color -- Black 47 SRM
Body -- Full-bodied
ABV -- 6.00%
IBU's -- 25
Plato -- 16°
Pkg -- 6-pack, 12-pack, Keg and Nitro Keg
Malts -- Pale 2-row, Crystal, Munich, Roast Barley, Flaked Oats, Flaked Barley and Chocolate
Hops -- Magnum and US Goldings

Another cool thing about Left Hand's website is that it has meal pairings and food/sauce recipies using each of the beers that they brew.

This is a good stout. Like I said I've been getting into stouts lately. Jenny doesn't exactly share my love of the style. She's more of a wheat and IPA kind of girl. With this brew you get some of the coffee like taste. It leaves a little of that taste in your mouth as well. The difference with this beer is that it is a little sweeter, most likely from the milk sugar added in. This is different than the sweetness of the Imperial Stout due to the bourbon taste/smell. All in all it's a good one. Any Stout is better than Guinness haha.

ENJOY!!

Hoegaarden!

If you are a fan of wheat beers than I highly recommend Hoegaarden. Hoegaarden is a Belgian White or Wit (pronounced Vit) beer. They are a Belgian creation much like the waffle. However although being similar to American and German they are their own style. Wikipedia's definition for Witbier goes a little something like this:

Witbier, or white beer, is a barley wheat top fermented beer style started in Belgium. It gets its name from the suspended yeasts and wheat proteins that give it a cloudy look when poured into a glass. These beers are flavored with a blend of spices most notably is coriander and orange.

I love this beer. I was first introduced to it while I was still wondering the world of American mass produced cheap light beers (they are fun to drink though). Jenny was the one who showed me the light. Last summer I got even more familiar with it while I was in Europe for the summer. It was available everywhere! Here in the US you usually have to find a specialty beer shop but it is getting more popular especially with Anheuser-Busch being absorbed by InBev. Here's some beer facts from the Anheuser-Busch site:


Hoegaarden is brewed using natural ingredients – mineral spring water, unmalted wheat, barley malt, hops, yeast, coriander and Curaçao orange peel. Hoegaarden is unfiltered, giving the beer a soft body, cloudy white appearance and thick, frothy head. Hoegaarden is 4.9 percent alcohol by volume (ABV).



Anyways its a great summertime beer. It is light and spicy. Very refreshing on a hot day. It is similar to a blue moon but the spices work better. It is also lighter and less orange tasting.

Jenny in Belgium with the 0.5 L Hoegaarden Glass (it weighed a ton!)

ENJOY!!