Kentucky Cow
Wellington Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

Not as smooth as other milk stout I have had.

 

Almost $11 worth of subpar beer is not the way to go but one has to spend to try.
This one claims bourbon, chocolate and milk and delivers neither. The bourbon is actually more gentle than, let's say, Nickel Brook's suicidal Old Kentucky Bastard, another Canadian failure. I don't hate myself enough to love poisons such as bourbon, so I am okay with the scaling back here, but I know that the style calls for a more predominant flavour.
Where they are really ruinous however, is with the chocolate milk part. You will be hard pressed to properly unearth any of that here. Instead, you will taste plastic. Unbecoming.
New Holland's Dragon's Milk so beats the living crap out of this style, that it's embarrassing.

Bottle: Poured a deep black color stout with a large brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of light bourbon and vanilla notes with some residual sugar and light roasted malt notes is quite nice. Taste is a nice mix of residual sugar notes with some roasted malt, lactose with vanilla and some bourbon notes to round off the edge of this beer. Body is about average with good carbonation. Well balanced with good drinkability. Body is a bit thin but apart from that this is an excellent beer.

750 mL swing-top bottle purchased at the brewery; packaged Dec 3 2015 and served at cellar temperature. This one-off variant of their popular Chocolate Milk Stout has been held in Kentucky bourbon barrels for 8 months.

Pours pitch black, kicking up nearly an inch of soapy, light beige-coloured head. It requires a few minutes to subside, leaving behind a dense, creamy cap that persists on the surface for quite a while. Nice, wide, foamy collar with a ring of modest lace. Smooth notes of bourbon, roasted malt and vanilla on the nose, with subtle hints of oak and milk chocolate. I am also getting a faint vinous quality off the nose, but that could be my imagination. Enticing.

Very nicely balanced. The familiar lactose sweetness and milk chocolate flavour of the base milk stout combine beautifully with the bourbon barrel elements of whiskey, vanilla and oak. Maybe a little bit of dark fruit, and I still can't shake that funky vinous note. Most of the flavour profile leans toward the sweet side, but the saccharinity falls off at the finish almost completely, leaving some oaky tannins and a touch of char behind, whilst the bourbony-ethanol warmth dries the palate out nicely. Medium-full in body, with gentle carbonation levels and a velvety-smooth, highly satisfying mouthfeel.

Final Grade: 4.31, an outstanding A grade. Wellington has been experimenting with bourbon barrels for a while now, and Kentucky Cow has got to be one of their most successful efforts to date in that field, surpassing even the very-solid Sputnik BBA IRS. It is not an overly complex beer, but the chocolate milk stout serves as an excellent base for the bourbon barrel contributions, and everything comes together extraordinarily well. Don't expect a bourbon bomb here, because this isn't that - it takes a more balanced approach to things, and that's something I'm really appreciating right now. Wish I'd grabbed a second bottle while it was available, but I guess I'll have to hope that this will be a Welly Re'Boot' at some point.

Appearance: Poured as black as night with a finger and a half of head that made mild lacing but didn't stick around for too long.

Smell: Warming certainly improved this beer, but a good dose of chocolate and whiskey dominates the nose. Mild notes of toffee and burnt malt are hidden in the back but for the most part solid stuff.

Taste: I took a small sip of head after the pour to prevent and over pour and I was already impressed. A sweet chocolate and mild toffee malt taste starts us off as it then begins to take on a sweet milky cream taste that's overseen by an oak whisky presence and builds in tandem with a small bitter shove. I want to say it's like drinking chocolate milk with a shot of Bailey's in it done to exacting perfection, but you can really tell the presence of Bourbon and not Irish whiskey. A party in my mouth and everyone is invited.

Mouthfeel: Transitioning is exceptional, and it leaves a plesant chocolate and mild whiskey aftertaste that is just great. It has a creaminess that I do enjoy but the only place it falters is the carbonation. Didn't really have a chance to enjoy the chocolatey head and it went lacklustre near the end.

Drinkability: The ease at which I drink this 7.7% beer is incredible. On the heavier end of medium bodied but despite it having the taste like the entire kitchen sink got thrown into the beer, this one doesn't quite drink like a meal, but it's close. It does seem to get a bit too sweet when you get near the end of the 750ml bottle though, but I suspect that's why they put a resealable stopper on the large bottle..and the fact I joyfully downed the entire bottle says something.

Final Thoughts: This beer is everything I expected it to be and more. I expected it to be Wellington's Milk Stout on steroids and it is just that, only that the ageing seems to smooth the entire beer out. I sincerely hope the brewery does another run of this stuff because I'm torn between this or the Muskoka Spring Odditiy as the best beer I've had out of Ontario. Two thumbs up, if you are in Guelph and they have it, you must pick it up.