Milk-Hearted Stout

On New Year's Day I skipped the endless bowl games for a marathon on Turner Classic Movies, with all three of the That's Entertainment! clip shows from the vaults of MGM and a special prize of That's Dancing! as well. Movie buff heaven. Somewhere in the middle of That's Entertainment II appeared Nelson Eddy in New Moon, yet another historical mish-mosh, this one set in Louisiana and Martinique. Eddy is the Duc de Villiers, temporarily enslaved until a shipwreck, when he emerges as leader, needing to rally his troops. And what better troop rallier could there be than for him to burst out in song? This song: Give me some men who are stout-hearted men/Who will fight for the right they adore.

(I have to admit that when we were kids, we modified the lyrics slightly into: Give me some men who are stout-hearted men/And we'll show you some men who are fat. Belated apologies to Nelson Eddy, and the considerably classy composing team of Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, Laurence Schwab, and Sigmund Romberg, giants all.)

Puns are in the air (remember "Love Is In the Air" by John Paul Young? Bet you don't.) and I can't help throwing a title of Milk-hearted Stout over the whole subject, the subject being the weird brewing process of adding lactose to beer.

Blame it all on Ferocious Fred, the name of the sweet porter brewed by Steve Urwin, the head brewer at High House Farm Brewery near Matfen, and named in honor of the original ferocious Fred, a very nasty bull.

The beer is somewhat milder:

Steve describes the nose as having chocolaty roasted, nutty toffee and spicy notes while the ale itself has a full bodied, smooth almost velvet texture.

So called sweet or milk porter/stout became popular in the years following the Second World War, but started to die out towards the end of the 20th century.

Now High House is leading a revival of interest in this nourishing stout which used to be prescribed for new mothers and invalids.

Milk stout is made from the addition of lactose to the beer, which gives it added body, sweetness and calories.

...

"The new beer is a delicious very dark porter, with a chocolaty flavour and a pleasing sweetness," said Steve.

"We wanted to create something a bit different for winter and Christmas this year, and decided on an old fashioned sweet porter, which we hope our customers will enjoy."

Milk stouts are coming back into favor in this country as well. Almost two years ago, I posted Lactose in Beer? which links to several American sources of the brew.

Salud!