December 1st - Saugatuck Brewing Company Neapolitan Milk Stout

December 1st - Saugatuck Brewing - Neapolitan Milk Stout

It's so exciting!!!

Welcome back to another year of brew reviews.  Hopefully you'll find something of worth here over the next 25 days.  Maybe it will be a beer you want to try and get your hands on.  Maybe it will be some entertainment from my self-proclaimed wittiness.  Maybe not.  Anyway...

I saw this beer a few years ago in my social media feeds and was dying to get my hands on a bottle. It wasn't until a trip to my local bottle shop that I came across it...anywhere.  For the record, I don't really want to drink Neapolitan ice cream flavored beer. However the combination of flavors piques my interest enough to try it.  Plus it sounds like it will be a good one!

When a brewer can take things like this and make a beer out of them, more times using certain ingredients to mimic those flavors instead of what you think/assume, it intrigues me to try it, at least once.

My early guess where the flavors come from, courtesy of Carnac

For the record, I tried my S'Mohrs Stout again this year...it's bottle conditioning at the moment...stay tuned.

Don't worry...I'll gift a few bottles for Christmas if you're nice ;)

Tonight from Saugatuck Brewing Company in Michigan, we're reviewing their Neapolitan Milk Stout.  Clocking in at an even 6% ABV, this beer boasts the flavors you'd expect from a Neapolitan ice cream.  

The beer poured a dark, opaque brown with a thin ring of creamy tan head.  The aroma reminded me of a strawberry wheat beer.  Mellow roasted malt was present as well.  There were some hints of other fruity esters here as well, which added to create an overall pleasant aroma.  

The beer also had a ton of flavor, which was more prominent when the beer wasn't as cold.  Strawberry flavor hits first while a chocolaty malt finished things up.  Don't forget about the vanilla here.  For me, that slid in there in the middle of each sip and also lingered on the back of my palate. 

yes...yes you are vanilla...

Actually, everything lingered for quite a while.  The chocolate malt probably most so, compared to the rest of the flavors.  This is an awesome choice tonight, post-dinner as a dessert beer.  It's enjoyable as a sipping beer with some sweetness (it is a milk stout after all) for your sweet tooth.  I don't know that I could sit and drink more than 1 of these at a time, however.

All that said, I'm glad I found not one bottle of this, but two.  I'll definitely enjoy this again in the days to come, after dinner of course.  If you can find it, I definitely recommend trying one or two if you're a sweet/milk stout fan and enjoy a flavorful dessert beer.  

4 out of 5 for this beer tonight!