Milk & Cookies Stout
Russell Brewing Company

Russell Brewing 'Milk & Cookies Stout' @ 6.5% , served from a 473 ml can
A-pour is a dark cola brown from the can to a near black in the glass with a medium tan head leaving a spotty lace along the tulip
S-sweet , milk & cookies
T-oh so sweet including the swallow
MF-lots of carbonation , medium body , bit watery
Ov-it's not a Milk stout or an Oatmeal stout butt a bit of both
prost LampertLand

A- This pours into my stout glass with an exceptionally thick and creamy head....all without a real aggressive pour out of the can! It is tan colored, very dense and meringue like in consistency and also carries great retention, taking a good several minutes to settle down to just a nice thick layer over the brew. The brew itself is cola in color, with reddish brown overtones when held up against a white background. The lacing is also excellent, with plenty of foam like stringy shapes clinging stickily to the inside of the glass at all points....very impressive overall!

S- There is definitely some raw cookie dough sweetness found right away, and as this warms, it slowly becomes more intense. Creamy, milky bread yeast is noted throughout the smell, alongside chocolate chip semi sweetness, mocha coffee, vanilla bean, perhaps some bittering freshly opened cocoa powder, and a finish that is of dry Earth, yet also of damp soil, burnt black malts, and muted leafy hop cones.

T- Ooooh this is nice! The flavors follow suit to the aforementioned aromas rather well, with plenty of traditional stout/porter characteristics on showcase.....dark chocolate/black malt burnt qualities, dry unsweet cocoa, highly dark chocolate all upfront, with balancing lactose, cream, cookie dough, bread yeast and hints of vanilla to help balance things out in the middle, with rounding dry grains and soft bitter leafy hop presence on the finish to help clean up the palate on the finish....the flavors linger slightly with doughy sweetness prevailing the most, but not in an overpowering fashion. Quite nice to sip on!

M/O- Medium-full bodied, and the carbonation is relatively normal....perhaps slightly more than I would like in a stout but nothing I cant get around. The alcohol is well hidden and the drinkability factor in my opinion is quite high...I think it makes a great session beer or an after dinner drink, and pairs well with chocolate (as it should). I recommend this one and think Russel did a fine job crafting this interesting take on the style!

8oz glass at Beer Revolution YEG Oliver Square - a little late to the game with the theme for this offering, methinks.

This beer appears a fairly solid black, with ample amber basal edges, and one finger of puffy, loosely foamy, and mildly bubbly brown head, which leaves some low pressure system profile cloudy lace around the glass as things slowly abate.

It smells of bittersweet cocoa powder, cookie dough, grainy and bready caramel malt, a hint of dark orchard fruitiness, and ephemeral earthy, musty, and floral green hops. The taste is chocolate pudding, bready and doughy caramel malt, lactose sugars, bruised pome fruity notes, and more well-understated earthy, leafy, and dead floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its structurally supportive frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and essentially smooth, with a thin airy creaminess evolving as things warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the milk chocolate character predominating.

Overall - yeah, this certainly evokes an impression of the stereotypical 'gift' put out for Santa on Xmas Eve. But even my 5 year-old knows that his old man prefers beer with his treats, so I guess this one works for me in an obvious way, after all.