You might call me the Anakin Skywalker of beer drinkers. At one time, I was a Padawan beer drinker learning the ways of the brew. I was trained in the light (not lite) side of beer: IPAs, Pilsners, Lagers, an occasional Kolsch.
But like Anakin, the dark side was calling. Guinness (not Sir Alec) was my gateway beer. Soon the dark side took over in the form of Imperial Stouts, Coffee Stouts and Milk Stouts. I have now gone full Darth Vader, embracing the dark side preferring a beer I can’t see through.
Most people prefer Stouts in the winter. Makes sense, they are after all heavy beers. But the dark side is strong with me and I drink stouts all year round. So during a 108-degree day in Northern California I cracked open Belching Beaver Brewery‘s Beaver’s Milk.
AROMA
The first thing you notice with this beer is the smell of coffee with hints of chocolate. It’s not an overpowering aroma, but it gives you a good indication of flavors that are about to hit your mouth. Overall, a really nice stout smell.
APPEARANCE
This beer is strong-coffee black, you most definitely can not see through it. Based on appearance alone this Darth Vader is pleased. Beaver’s Milk poured with a decent light brown head that gave the impression of creaminess. It makes me wistfully wonder what this beer would be like on nitro.
Beaver’s Milk comes in your standard 22 ounce brown bottle with an Applied Ceramic Label (ACL) which is just a fancy way of saying printed directly onto the glass. I always find these kind of labels a little more classy for whatever reason.
FLAVOR
Beaver’s Milk is exactly what I’m looking for in a milk stout: good flavor without seeming like it’s trying to hard. Belching Beaver delivers on the coffee and chocolate flavors it promises on the label.
The label also says this beer out sells the company’s IPA 2 to 1. I have not had the company’s IPA but this is such a good beer that even though IPAs are all the rage… I can totally believe this.
OVERALL
This is another really good beer coming out of the San Diego area. I don’t really have any complaints and I would certainly have this beer again. Consider this Darth Vader of beer drinkers… pleased.
