Lancaster Brewing Company - Milk Stout

Milk stout is a somewhat rare English style of stout that is made sweeter and fuller in body by the addition of the non-fermentable sugar lactose (a type of sugar found in milk, hence this beer's name). Lancaster's example is true to style and quite a treat. This black brew gives a characteristic milk stout nose—yes, you can smell a subtle milk-like note, but this is among deep, dark chocolate and coffee notes. Flavor wise, it runs deep with coffee notes, dark cocoa, nuttiness, vanilla bean, and citrusy hop notes. Despite the added lactose, it manages to finish rather dry as a stout ought. The ideal partner to a chocolate soufflé.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was at one point responsible for producing seven percent of all beer brewed in the United States. The brewing tradition in the region was spurred by innkeepers who brewed beer in back rooms, but by the late 18th century, English and Scottish immigrants had become brewers on much larger scales. In the 1840s, German lagers came to town along with immigrant Germans who brought with them "new" brewing techniques and expanded the repertoire from English and Scottish ales to German lager beers (and ultimately supplanted the former). During this period, Lancaster's newspaper, The Daily Intelligencer, dubbed it the "Munich of the United States." Even at the height of Prohibition, many brewers in Lancaster refused to stop brewing. Some did it right out in the open until forced to shut down, others set up hidden 'breweries within breweries' in order to keep the beer flowing. But all local beer production stopped in 1956, when the last of Lancaster's Pre-Prohibition breweries shut down. The town wouldn't see another until nearly 40 years later, when The Lancaster Malt Brewing Company opened its doors in April of 1995. For the past 13 years it's been continuously operating as a restaurant and brewery, although ownership, and the brewery name, changed in 2002. Master Brewer Christian Heim has been with the brewery since it opened in 1995; his great respect for the brewing traditions of old Lancaster, coupled with his modern know-how, are largely responsible for the solid reputation LBC's beers have built. For more information about the Brewery or their restaurant (the Walnut Street Grille), check out their web site at www.lancasterbrewing.com or give them a call at (717) 391-6258.