Cookie Exchange (2023): Caramel Vanilla Shortbread
Great Lakes Brewing Co.

Super dark brown in color with a tan head. Nose is very much vanilla. Taste is very sweet, too much for me. After flavor across palate is vanilla and caramel. Slight tobacco flavor creeps in.

Foamier than expected pours eventually entirely emptied two twelve ounce cans into a clear glass liter mug. Immediately, there's a strong vanilla sugar cookie aroma. The foam receded quickly, becoming a solid tan head. It sits on top of a liquid that's just a little lighter than black coffee brown. Some caramel gets detected within the aroma, but mostly, this just smells sweet. The taste sort of captures a caramel sugar cookie, if that's what you want in your Stout. But, aside from a shallow sweetness, there's not much more to taste here. Maybe you can pick up a little roasted malt, but that's near the finish when the other flavors, "natural and artificial", have run their course. Like the lacing inside the glass, there's almost no appreciatable body. It goes down more like a soda pop than a Stout. In fairness, not much more should be expected from a Milk Stout flavored to taste like a sugar cookie. Points for being true to its intention, but not much more.

Look 3.75 l 5.0
: dark brown with a little residual cloudiness... I head developed but !fades rather quickly

Smell: 3.75. l 5.00
cCramel and vanilla lead with Perhaps some residual chocolate smell

Taste: 3.75. l 5.00
eads with a heavy bitter no but turns with some inherent sweetness and vanilla flavor... It's a little bit artificial and it's construction... The Sweet lactose brings it around just enough to that vanilla note... A little bit of a frost thing chocolate aroma and feel.

Mouth feel: 3.75 l 5.00
Medium body with a late almond feeling ---and a smooth sweet finish. A little vanilla with nut spice and everything nice... Yes I'm notnut a little spice. It feels sweet maybe likebrown sugar. Yeah cookie ---and late in the pallet, I taste eggnog and cinnamon,
there's a little bit of spice... Is everything nice

Overall: 3.75 l 5.0
Okay this is a pastry stout... Yes it's a little bit gimmicky... Honestly it's not great but it does feel a niche...
If you want to drink your cookies... And relax afterwards.... This might be for you!

Great aroma, with a bold approach with a taste that is far more subtle than expected.

When this milk stout arrived, my expectations were muted. Picking it up, it had notes of caramel and reminds me of a bourbon barrel beer. The flavor is far less sweet, though malty. The texture less like a stout than a lager. It lacks the silky texture of a Guinness or the carbonation of a Left Hand Milk Stout, though flavorful and finishes well.

This is a very nice beer with some early surprises and balanced flavor.

 

Can from trader joes!

 

 

 

 

4/5/24, on tap at Marilyn's On Main.

Nice and stoney, light in body, slight carbonation on the tongue.

A definite buttery sweet cookie aroma and flavor. Sweet, but not overly. Makes for a very enjoyable pour!

 

I got a can of this beer off the single shelf from my local Giant Eagle store. It poured an opaque dark khaki ring head that is not leaving much lace. The scent had sweet red Velvet notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with light caramel malt base with vanilla and molasses and maple presence. The mouthfeel was lighter in body with good carbonation. Overall it is a good beer.

Had on tap. Mild black body, full brown head, the highlight of this one. Smells of lactose, vanilla and general baking sugar, almost has a maple undertone. Taste is hyper sweet with a Christmas train tour through various sugary adjunct flavors, especially vanilla, then thins out to weak malt. Weak bodied, breaks down in the sip, sugar adds up almost immediately. Swing and a miss

 

Had on draft at Frisco Taphouse in Gambrills, MD. Not sure what variant this is, but it's very sweet with vanilla and roasty malt flavor. Decent dessert stout but doesn't stand out from the pack.

 

 

Poured a nearly black color with a large (~3 inch) light tan pillowy head. Very little retention, but excellent lacing.

At any temperature, the aroma is very vanilla-forward. Lactose. Some dark caramel, cookie dough. Not complex, but nice enough.

Taste mostly follows the nose. Sweet up front, with some light bitterness/char on the back. Tasty as a dessert beer, wouldn't want more than one in a sitting.

The weak point here is the mouthfeel. Borderline watery, thin, underwhelming.

As a few others have said, this is fine as a novelty, and it isn't a bad beer. But this is below what you expect in terms of Great Lakes quality. It needed more time or attention to really get fleshed out, which I hope they do next year.

8 ounce draft pour into a Tulip.

L: Near black, khaki head, large bubbled khaki head, good retention, specks of lace.
S: Sweet and doughy aroma, sugar cookies baking.
T: A bit thin, equal parts sweet and bitter, tangy black coffee and vanilla cream, sweet aftertaste.
F: Light bodied, moderate carbonation.
O: OK in small amounts.