Whether you’re team skim, two percent, whole, raw, oat-adjacent, or just here for the creamy nostalgia of childhood sippy cups and cereal-stained Saturday mornings, January 11 is your day: National Milk Day. And at Peaks & Pints, we honor this sacred udder-born observance the only way we know how—by skipping the glass and going straight for the tap. Behold: Peaks & Pints Beer Flight: National Milk Day, a luscious lineup of milk stouts, silky and sinful, brewed not with milk exactly, but with lactose—the mystical sugar that brewer’s yeast can’t touch, leaving behind all the creamy sweetness and none of the guilt (OK, maybe a little guilt).
Milk stouts, bless them, began their dark seduction back in 19th-century Europe, where brewers discovered that a generous hit of lactose transformed the stout into something dreamier—maltier, softer, edged with chocolate and caramel and just enough roast to keep things upright. Think of it as stout’s sensual cousin, the one who shows up late to the dinner party wearing velvet and smelling faintly of espresso and mystery. And yes, the alchemy of heat, sugar, and time mimics the caramelization of evaporated milk—science and magic, swirling in the kettle. Sometimes, if you listen closely, you can hear the lactose whispering: “Shhh, let it be sweet.”
So today, forget the milk mustache. You want a milk mouthfeel. Grab a flight, raise a glass, and drink deeply of the dark, creamy glory.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: National Milk Day
Kulshan Dulce Muerte
5% ABV
Kulshan Brewing’s Dulce Muerte Horchata Milk Stout is brewed in collaboration with El Sueñito Brewing, a gay and Mexican-owned brewery in Bellingham. Dulce Muerte is the two Bellingham breweries’ dark and sultry offering to those who have come and gone before them. This decadent horchata milk stout offers rich, subtly sweet malt notes, and whispers of Mexican cinnamon and vanilla flavors that celebrate the traditions they cherish and the people they love.
Mother Earth Milk Truck
5.8% ABV
Opaque in appearance, but with a marshmallow softness, Mother Earth Brewing uses specially chosen roasted malts to impart a non-astringent, darkness that laces the glass and our mouths from first sip. Accentuated using vanilla, lactose, and a heavy dose of oats, this big-bodied milk stout further impresses by finishing with a rich coffee aroma.
Belching Beaver Viva La Beaver!
7.5% ABV
Kick your peanut butter fix up a notch with Belching Beaver Brewing’s Viva La Beaver, which was formerly named Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout, and prior, Viva La Beaver and Living La Beaver Loca. Whatever the name, this Mexican imperial milk stout has 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.
Stone Xocoveza
8.1% ABV
Stone Brewing formerly hosted the American Homebrewers Association Rally — a people’s choice-style homebrew competition at their annual AHA Rally in Southern California. During the Rally, attendees sampled beer from dozens of homebrewers and voted on their favorites. The winning homebrewer’s recipe was replicated by Stone on a commercial scale, distributed around the country, and entered the annual Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition. In 2014, San Diego homebrewer Chris Banker won with what would eventually be named Xocoveza for the holidays and new year. The inspiration came from Mexican hot chocolate combined with coffee. This imperial mocha stout is brewed with coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a generous amount of Stone’s in-house made chocolate.
Alesong Rhino Suit
11.4% ABV
The name Rhino Suit isn’t something the three Alesong Brewing & Blending owners wear to raise awareness and funds, but rather it’s a term dropped by their winemaker friend while Doug Coombs, Brian Coombs and Matt Van Wyk listened to his business advice. The Sonoma winemaker said you must wear a rhino suit every day to battle through walls of negativity. After the meeting, the Alesong owners knew the name of their first beer _ an imperial milk stout named Rhino Suit. It’s aged in freshly emptied Heaven Hill bourbon barrels adding smooth notes of vanilla and coconut to the rich chocolate flavors of the base milk stout. After working your way through the wax-dipped entryway, a strong rush of bourbon with milk hits the nose. On the tongue, expect creamy, milk smooth body with notes of dark chocolate and vanilla, plus some alcohol heat on the finish.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
