Sweet (Milk) Stout
My version of a sweet stout is not especially sweet. But you know what? Because of that, it avoids the biggest fault in most of this style, which is a heavy, fake-tasting cloy. This is a beer that seems sweet, but it isn’t. Therefore, it can be enjoyed by the pint.
Style: Conceived as a fortified “milk beer,” sweet stout evolved into a crowd-pleaser that could compete with bitter and porter for mass appeal. It is relatively light (around 5 percent ABV, on average), with medium-full to full body, and has more roast character than others in the stout family. The best examples have a subtle, relative sweetness, but no more than that. Pick up some recent GABF medal-winners in this style; while you’ll find them sweeter than dry stout or oatmeal stout, they’re still quite balanced.
Ingredients: This recipe is inspired by the classic Duck-rabbit Milk Stout from North Carolina. It gets sweetness from a small addition of lactose but also from the relative restraint in dark malts—they add just enough roast to make it a stout, and not much more than that. The grist is pretty simple: Maris Otter base, some pale chocolate malt, and a bit of de-husked Carafa III. The Maris adds a nice English, bready background; the pale chocolate adds some roast coffee and chocolate notes; and the Carafa stands in for roasted barley or Black Patent for color, and it adds mild notes of chocolate-covered espresso beans (instead of acrid, sharp roast). To this we add some lactose.
I’ve tried the recipe without it—mashing high to increase long-chain sugars or adding crystal malt to get unfermentables—but it doesn’t turn out quite right. You’ll end up with a beer that’s about 5.5 percent ABV, jet black, and nicely (but subtly) roasty and sweet.
Just as we want the roast restrained, we also want low bitterness. A little earthy hops flavor is welcome, so I like about 20 IBUS of Fuggles. Finally, Wyeast 1187 (Ringwood) has some nicely low attenuation and at cooler temperatures avoids diacetyl and excessive esters—though either, if they come through, will impart a slight impression of sweetness as well, so no real harm done (and you might even like the flavors). Process: A key question here is when to add lactose. I like to add it at flame-out and simply stir it in as I whirlpool. The second key step here is fermentation temperature; we want to avoid diacetyl and fruity esters (which can happen with Ringwood yeast), so ferment cooler than usual for English ales (60°F/15°C), and raise the temperature during the last few days of primary for a diacetyl rest. Carbonate to about 1.75 volumes. The slightly lower carbonation will add an impression of sweetness without actually adding sweetness.
A genuinely “sweet” sweet stout can quickly wear out its welcome, whereas you’ll be able to enjoy this one all afternoon and into the evening.