Carrot Cake Milk Stout

As many of you know, this is our fifth year of doing our Unafraid of the Dark series. Every year, we think ‘how can we possibly come up with six new dark beers that we have never done before?’ But then, magically, we we always seem to come up with new and fresh ideas – and, we have a blast doing so! It helps a lot when we are inspired by something. This year, as some might have noticed, we were inspired by cake — plum cake, black forrest cake, and now, a carrot cake milk stout!

So what does a carrot cake beer taste like? Well, it really does taste like carrot cake – it’s sweet, but not cloying. It’s spiced, but not overly so. It smells of frosting, and you definitely get the carrot flavor. This is very much a dessert beer, although you can pair it with more savory foods (see below for pairing tips).

As you would expect from us, we used lots of fresh carrots (from Meadow’s Mirth Farm in Stratham, NH) in the beer. We added carrots in two additions. First, we added roasted carrots in the mash. Then, we juiced up enough carrots for about 2 gallons of juice, and added that to the secondary.

Here are the tasting notes from our team on this latest beer: Carrot Cake Milk Stout –
– Appearance: Fairly dark beer with a caramel colored head that tends to dissipate fairly quickly.
– Aroma: The nose smells amazingly like frosting. You get some spiced vanilla notes, too.
– Taste & Mouthfeel: There is a decent amount of body and mouthfeel to this beer. When you take a sip, you’ll get the sweetness from the lactose, along with hints of ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla. The sweetness tastes like brown bread at first, and finishes with raisin notes at the end. You’ll also get a nice lingering carrot flavor. I have to say, this beer tastes pretty unique from the stouts we typically make, which are usually quite roasty and on the drier side. This beer is not at all roasty, and it is more malt forward, thanks in part to a heavy addition of Munich Malt in the mash.
– Pairing: For our 5th Annual Chocolate, Cheese, & Beer pairing, we paired this beer with a freshly made salted chocolate pretzel stuffed with Timberdoodle, as well as with Ewe’s Blue – a creamy, roquefort-like blue cheese. Both pairings worked out quite well! Chef Carrie thinks this beer will go well with French Toast, Chicken and Waffles, French Meat pie, and dark chocolate.
– Serving glass: To maximize the aroma, we will be serving this beer in a 12 oz tulip glass.
– Stats – ABV is 6.7%  and IBU is 27.

Carrot Cake Milk Stout will be available starting tomorrow, Wednesday, February 24th, 2016. Come on over and get your cake on!