Milk Stout Nitro, Left Hand Brewing Company, Longmont

Style: Milk Stout

ABV: 6 percent

Serving Type: 12-ounce bottle

Malty? Hoppy? Nothin’ but sweet malt.

Reviewed: October 2012

We’ve long been a fan of Left Hand‘s Milk Stout and are always pleasently surprised to find ourselves in a bar that serves the brew from a nitro tap. The nitrogen imparts a silky smooth quality that pairs well with this stout’s sweet cream flavor. So about a year ago, when Left Hand found a way to bottle the nitrogen version of this brew—a first for an American craft brewery—we were excited, if a bit skeptical.

Turns out, Left Hand nailed it. Crack open this beer and immediately pour it hard into a glass, and the brew looks like it came fresh off a nitro tap at a bar. The Milk Stout has a dense creamy head with bubbles that cascade down through the beer. (Think of a Guinness.) The mouthfeel is exactly what you would expect: light and velvety. As is often the case with nitro brews, the flavors are subdued and the creaminess reigns supreme. In this case, that means it’s harder to discern the Milk Stout’s pleasant milk chocolate flavors. Our only complaint? Milk Stout Nitro isn’t quite as good as the traditional Milk Stout, one of our favorite Colorado brews, which is a bit more complex, particularly during the winter.

Would we buy it again? We prefer our sixers of Milk Stout in non-nitro form, but we’ll still look forward to the occasional nitro pint on tap.