New Beer: Dark Chocolate Milk Stout
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Rochester taps its new dark chocolate milk stout! This classic milk stout is loaded with liquefied cacao nibs and Madagascar vanilla beans. The resulting rich beer features an aroma of cocoa and malt sweetness. The flavor is dark chocolate with prominent notes of vanilla. This beer is better than a box of chocolates!
History
Despite what you might think, chocolate beers are not something new, borne from experimental craft brewing. Fermented cocoa-based beverages actually date back to pre-Columbian Latin America. The Inca brewed chicha or “corn beer” for rituals and religious celebrations, and people still consume it today at festivals throughout South and Central America. Variations of chicha include infusing it with fruits and spices, including cinnamon and cacao. Like beer, brewers make chicha by germinating maize, extracting malt sugars and boiling the wort. The resulting beverage ferments for several days in large earthenware vessels.
Milk Stouts
Unlike dry stouts, milk stouts actually include milk, in the form of lactose, a sugar found in dairy. Yeast don’t convert lactose into alcohol during fermentation, yielding a beer that is smooth bodied, creamy and somewhat sweet. Its popularity rose in the UK during the 1800s when workers added whole milk to their stout porters to make them more nutritious. Eventually brewers started adding lactose and today’s creamy milk stouts were born.
Rochester’s Dark Chocolate Milk Stout
Rochester Brewing and Roasting’s newest beer lives up to its name with creamy cocoa and vanilla sweetness. Its sweetness enhances as the beer warms, with more cocoa flavor coming to the forefront. Treat yourself by trying this tasty dark chocolate milk stout or one of our other craft beers today!
