Whether you pledge allegiance to skim, two-percent, whole, oat, or whatever creamy persuasion gets you through the morning, Jan. 11 arrives like a gentle dairy wink from the universe. It’s National Milk Day, which at Peaks & Pints means we’re absolutely not drinking plain milk like sensible adults. Instead, we celebrate the only way that makes any sense: with a flight of milk stouts — dark, decadent, and unapologetically lush — known formally (and with a raised eyebrow) as Craft Beer Crosscut 1.11.19: A Flight for National Milk Day.
Milk stouts drifted in from 19th-century Europe, wearing velvet coats and carrying a sweet tooth. They lean into malt-driven richness — cocoa, caramel, toasted grain — then soften the edges with lactose, the unfermentable sugar found in cow’s milk. Brewers’ yeast can’t do a thing with it, so the lactose just lounges there, contributing body, silk, and that unmistakable creamy glide. Call them cream stouts, sweet stouts, milk stouts — the point is comfort with depth, dessert without cloying, roast without the bite. It’s not unlike heating milk until sugars caramelize into evaporated milk territory, which is essentially what happens during brewing: lactose meets heat, magic happens. Sometimes there’s even a faint tang, a ghost note that hints at lactic possibility and keeps things interesting. Whatever the chemistry, when milk stouts are done right, they don’t just soothe — they astonish. Like the five in today’s flight, quietly extraordinary, dark as midnight, soft as a whisper, and absolutely here to celebrate milk’s weird, wonderful afterlife in beer.
Craft Beer Crosscut 1.11.19: A Flight For National Milk Day
Left Hand Brewing Nitro Milk Stout
6% ABV, 25 IBU
Without going into the chemical physics of solubility and gas diffusion, let’s just say that nitrogen has a silky effect on beer. Nitrogenized brews, as opposed to carbonated ones, have a softer mouthfeel, taste less acidic and boast a creamier, more stable head. Left Hand Brewing’s Milk Stout was no bore before, and on nitro, it’s even better. Cocoa and burnt flavors from its dark roasted grains come forward first, followed by a wave of sweet cream thanks to the use of lactose sugar. Magnum hops help give the 6 percent-alcohol brew a bitter finish that entices the next sip. Throughout, the beer’s ultra-smooth texture inches it closer to chocolate milk than you thought a beer could get.
Belching Beaver Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout
7.5% ABV, 28 IBU
Kick your peanut butter fix up a notch with Belching Beaver Brewing’s Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout. Formally named Viva La Beaver, and prior, Living La Beaver Loca, Belching Beaver changed the name to highlight the key flavors of this award-winning beer. With notes of creamy peanut butter, cinnamon, roasted coffee, thick chocolate, cookie dough, fudge, brownie batter, cappuccino, toffee and dark roasted malts upfront, we get a little vanilla on the mid-palate. This decadent milk stout is the definition of dessert beer.
Paradise Creek MooJoe Coffee Milk Stout
5% ABV, 30 IBU
The milk stout, also known as an English sweet stout, emphasizes a malty sweetness with hints of chocolate and caramel. Some versions, like Paradise Creek Brewing’s MooJoe, add lactose for more body and softness. The Pullman, Washington brewery takes its beer one step further by cold conditioning it with fresh ground coffee from Bucer’s Coffee House across the border in Moscow, Idaho. The result is a smooth, light stout with coffee and chocolate notes and slightly bitter on the end.
Trap Door Super Treat!
8% ABV
Trap Door Brewing tossed real waffles in the mash tun while brewing their decadent Super Treat Neapolitan ice cream stout. Then, the Vancouver, Washington brewery conditioned this milk stout on strawberries, vanilla beans, and cacao nibs. All the ingredients make an appearance, including the waffles. Yes, this stout is super sweet, but it’s also super delicious.
Against The Grain 70K
13% ABV, 48 IBU
Against the Grain‘s bottles are full of attitude that jumps out at you on the shelf. Located in a former train station on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky, this rapidly expanding brewery and restaurant brews on a 15-barrel system, in addition to brewing at Pub Dog Brewery in Maryland. It’s 70K is essentially Against The Grain Brewery’s 35K Milk Stout recipe doubled: double roasty, double chocolaty, double creamy, double delicious. Then, the Kentucky brewery aged it in Angel’s Envy Bourbon barrels for notes of rich molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, roasted malts, dark sugars, oak and coffee with a bitter finish.
