Midnight Cow Tipper Milk Stout

Midnight Cow Tipper Milk Stout is a dark ale from Toronto, brewed by Eastbound Brewing Co. Sold in 355mL cans, MCT contains 5.2% alcohol. It is a near black ale that pours with a short-lived tan head.

MCT has a jumbo chocolate aroma, built on top of a roasted malt foundation and accented with coffee notes. The flavour is sweet and chocolaty, with some molasses and iron elements. It finishes sweetly, with a slight nod to espresso bitterness.

A nice and well made milk stout, Midnight Cow Tipper is a pretty decent offering. Good balance and a decent texture.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

The Classy Cow

The Classy Cow is a milk stout that hails from Shakespeare, Ontario’s Shakespeare Brewing Co. At 5.5%, the stout has a pretty decent kick, and an amber-highlighted onyx colour with a creamy head. Sold in 473mL cans, The Classy Cow features a well-dressed Elizabethan bovine on the  label.

The beer has a sweet and rich roasted malt aroma. The flavour also delivers roasty malt, but this is somewhat drowned out by a massive dose of creamy sweetness. The mouthfeel is smooth and agreeable, though, and the finish has a nice café au lait bitterness.

A decent milk stout, but one that trades too emphatically in sweetness, The Classy Cow is tasty, but a bit cloying.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Raspbeery Coco Lait

An entry from the Muskoka Brewery’s Moonlight Kettle series that I picked up at the brewery in Bracebridge, Ontario, Raspbeery Coco Lait is a milk stout flavoured with raspberry purée. The easy-drinking 4.5% alcohol ale comes in a 473mL can. It’s a dark ale with elegant ruby highlights.

RCL has an engaging chocolatey aroma with just the faintest hint of a tart raspberry backbone. The raspberry in the flavour is considerably more than a hint, though, giving the beer an assertively fruity vibe that follows on the heels of a malty, cocoa rich base.

Raspbeery Coco Lait is a decadent dessert beer that would pair brilliantly with a chocolate indulgence of some sort after a rich meal. And, since if you’re anything like me, you probably had a bottle of wine or two with dinner, you’re in luck that the beer has low alcohol count, so you might not nod off in your tort.

I’m irritated that the can didn’t tell me whether this is a stout or a porter, though those labels are often pretty arbitrary and the website declared it to be a milk stout. Otherwise, I have few negatives to heap on RCL, other than the fact that I’d have preferred a more bitter and gritty chocolate to the milky number in evidence.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Midnight Kissed My Cow

Midnight Kissed My Cow is a double chocolate milk stout from Kanata, Ontario. It's brewed and filled into 473mL cow-emblazoned cans by Big Rig Brewery. Checking in at 5.6%, this little ale features lactose and cocoa in its ingredients list, making this a flavoured stout. The beer poured dark and opaque, with a smooth blanket of eggshell head.

Unsurprisingly, MKMC's nose was sweet and chocolatey, if a bit mild. It had a thin but smooth mouthfeel reminiscent of chocolate milk. This vibe was reinforced by a definite mocha taste. The beer finished quite sweetly, with only a sprinkling of cocoa bitterness. 

As double chocolate stouts go, Midnight Kissed My Cow wasn't particularly rich or thick. The richness I missed, but the thickness was an omission that didn't rankle all that much. All told, an adequate chocolate ale.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Bristol Stout

A milk stout from Ottawa, Ontario, Bristol Stout is a fall seasonal produced by Kichesippi Beer Co. It's a 4.8% alcohol number with a moderate IBU count of 36. It's sold in 473mL cans that feature a cow and explain that the beer is inspired by the family farm in Bristol, Quebec.

Less black than dark brown, this stout poured hazily and with a sudsy cream head. Roasted malt and molasses on the nose were accompanied by a whiff of mocha. The flavour proved to be chocolately, with some coffee notes, atop a roasted malt foundation. The mouthfeel was quite smooth, but also unfortunately thin. As for the finish, Bristol concluded on a slightly bitter cacao lilt.

This beer was good, but not great. The strength and mouthfeel were the biggest drawbacks, while its very nice flavour accounted for its greatest strength.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Black Sheep

Dark, sweet, and sudsy, Black Sheep is a milk stout from Nixon, Ontario. Sold in 500mL bottles at the source, the New Limburg Brewing Company, Black Sheep contains a pretty sound 5.9% alcohol. It's an opaque onyx brew that dwells beneath a serious and determined fog of tan head.

Through its thick head, Black Sheep didn't give away much in the way of aroma, but there some roasted malt notes, as well as expressions of sweet mocha. Much more potent is the flavour, which takes a milk chocolate initial note and swings sharply toward a bitter, almost harsh, cacao finish. Along the way, there are a few French roast elements thrown into the mix as well. Considerable sediment is left behind.

Like many milk stouts I've sipped, I was expecting Black Sheep to be over-sweet and maybe a bit syrupy, but the beer I downed was complicated, flavourful, and only semi-sweet. A bottle conditioned ale, this stuff was fully ready to seduce my palate. It's a beer for slow savouring, not hurried guzzling, as its profile matures as it warms. It also tastes considerably stronger than it actually is. This beer is nearly worth the trip to Norfolk County on its own, and definitely required tasting if you find yourself in the area. When I bought a range of six N.L. beers, I expected this to be a weak link and found it to be a real beauty.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

The Chocolate Manifesto

Chocoholics take note: The Chocolate Manifesto by Barrie, Ontario's Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery is an over-indulgent blast of big booze and chocolatey splendour. Billed as a triple chocolate milk stout, this jumbo special edition ale combines three types of chocolate: shade-grown cacao nibs, roasted cacao powder, and chocolate malt (which is a stretch, as I don't believe it actually has anything to do with chocolate). Sold as a boxed 750mL bottle, this 10% elixir is clearly meant to be shared--be wary of doing what I did, which was drink the whole bottle myself before dinner on a Saturday afternoon. The box and bottle are both extremely busy, even by the wacky standards of Flying Monkeys, and uncommonly text-heavy. There is definitely some interesting stuff if you take the time to read through though. My three favourite gems are the plea to "Save the earth, it's the only planet with chocolate. And beer."; the exaltation that "Passion is such an important ingredient in craft beer, we should include it on the label."; and the admonition to not "mindlessly praise craft beer. Challenge Brewers to innovate."

On to the beer!

This ale is dark brown, with amber highlights. It pours with a fog warning's worth of loose tan head. It has an extremely sweet, chocotastic aroma. There are milk chocolate elements along with chocolate milk elements. As well, under the sugary exterior, there is a slice of cacao bitterness.

Almost like drinking an alcoholic dark chocolate bar, The Manifesto features a thick, syrupy mouthfeel, and a powerfully sweet, slightly bitter flavour that verges on obscene. At 10% alcohol, you'd expect off-the-charts boozy heat, but it is understated to a deadly level. You only really appreciate the amount of fire in this stuff when you reach out to refill your glass and notice a tremor in your pouring hand.

To me, this beer was more novelty than desirable, but that's not to say it wasn't innovative or well made. It's a formidably strong ale with an unapologetic degree of sweetness and chocolate levels that are off the charts. Seriously, with the amount of cacao in this bad boy, I'm surprised it poured at all. I almost expected to have to scoop it out with a ladle. So, to sum up my thoughts, this is a genuinely unique beer. It doesn't skimp on chocolate and delivers exactly what it promised to deliver. That I didn't love it is more a reflection of my beer preferences than any kind of defect. It does bear pointing out though, that without the oodles of chocolate, I'm not convinced that this is a particularly strong standalone stout.

I would be remiss not to mention that The Chocolate Manifesto was gifted to me by my one-of-a-kind brother, who is a real class act. And he's single, ladies!

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

The Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout

The Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout comes from Farmville, North Carolina.  It's brewed by The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery, sold in 355mL bottles, and doesn't have an alcohol percentage listed on the bottle. It pours a deep, dark brown and poured with a decent amount of tan head that faded quickly. It has a rich and powerful mocha aroma that's sweet, but has a slight hop kick. The flavour profile goes from sweet to bitter. It starts chocolaty, with some brown sugar and raisin notes. The finish is surprisingly bitter--I'd love to know the IBU count. It's hoppy with tobacco notes and just the faintest glimmer of cranberry. The mouthfeel is smooth, but with a bitter, crunchy speedbump.

According to the label, the Duck-Rabbit folks are "the dark beer specialists". If their milk stout is any indication, that might be a well deserved distinction. Nice stuff.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Mackeson XXX Triple Stout

Mackeson XXX Triple Stout is a milk stout out of Champs Fleurs, Trinidad, West Indies. Brewed by the Carib Brewery, Mackeson is sold in 330mL bottles and contains 4.9% alcohol. I really dig the Mackeson label, which features three dudes standing in some kind of unusual pyramid.

The Triple Stout is an oil black brew topped with a tan head. Its sweet aroma has notes of milk chocolate and molasses. It boasts a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, which compliments a flavour that encompasses notes of chocolate, brown sugar, and vanilla.

The Mackeson Triple Stout is a very sweet and creamy stout. It's a bit on the sugary side for my tastes--I can't picture myself drinking more than one in a night. If you like your stouts sweet and smooth, this is the stuff for you. Personally, I prefer a bit more bitterness in my dark ales.


Rating: 7.0