White Hag Brewery, White Sow Chocolate Milk Stout

Here’s your cheat sheet for White Sow Chocolate Milk Stout by White Hag Brewery.

White Hag Brewery, White Sow Chocolate Milk Stout / milk stout / 5.2%% ABV / IBU 30

Featured in main subscriber box on 5 April 2018.

Find the brewery on Twitter at @TheWhiteHag and on Instagram at @thewhitehag.

Serving temperature

The usual recommendation for stouts is to serve at 7°C to 10°C, translating to at least an hour in the fridge and maybe up to 90 minutes. I’d suggest very slightly warmer, 10°C and up, so maybe just under an hour in the fridge.

As ever, be wary of over-chilling your beer. More chill means less flavour. To learn more read my post on recommended serving temperatures.

Flavours to expect

[pullquote type=”right”]A sweet stout with complex flavours.[/pullquote]

We’re back in stout town this week, where dark malts make their mark. Expect all the usual roasty toasty goodness that this entails. Irish stouts are usually light and quite dry but I think this one should be different – less Guinness and more of an English-style craft stout. The oatmeal should bring a softness to the body, and the lactose should add sweetness and fullness. Plus there’s cocoa in there, adding to the roasty notes from the dark malt. I’m thinking this could be a chocolate-milkshake kind of beer, with a decent hit of bitterness to balance it all out.

Food pairings

Stouts are more versatile than you might expect when it comes to matching with food, but as this one leans heavily on the chocolate that narrows things down a little for us. Oatmeal stouts are great with beef, venison, and lamb – especially with savoury sauces. A stout like tonight’s might find more affinity with chocolatey mole sauces. That’s the Mexican sauce flavoured with chilli and dark chocolate, not the burrowing enemy of lawn enthusiasts.

[pullquote cite=”Garrett Oliver” type=”left”]Stouts are an absolutely perfect match for chocolate desserts.[/pullquote]

In his book The Brewmaster’s Table Garrett Oliver mentions pasta made with chocolate: a bitter chocolate ravioli stuffed with roasted pumpkin sautéed with butter, marjoram and pumpkin seeds. It sounds delicious but might be a bit much to whip up after work on a Thursday night. So, for something a little more practical we’re looking again at the dessert trolley. (What, you don’t have one in your house?) Yes it’s the good old choco-choco matching, but don’t go too dark. This isn’t an impy stout, and it’s important to match the intensity of the beer to the intensity of the food, so this beer would work best with something semisweet such as chocolate soufflé.

Further info

Read more on this beer from BeerBods and White Hag Brewery.