A couple of months ago I complained of undetectable cream in St Peter's Cream Stout. I'm beginning to suspect that brewers' definition of "cream" is very different from mine, since last night I had a Samuel Adams Cream Stout and must confess to being unable to detect any cream here either. It's a rather thin stout, with a sparkly mouthfeel and mild caramel flavours. In fact I'd place it closer to a Vienna lager or some class of dunkel in style, and very much not what I'm after in a stout, or a purportedly creamy beer.
Somebody please explain cream in beer to me. Perhaps too much nitrogenation has ruined my vocabulary.
4 years ago
Milk stout has to have lactose sugar in it, but personally I wouldn't expect to find cream, or lactose sugar in a cream stout, I'd just expect it to have a creamy mouthfeel and a tight creamy head, without too much bitterness.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't expect oysters in an oyster stout, either, just that the beer is suitable for/designed to go with oysters ... actually putting oysters in the beer is, I suspect, an error ...
Err. The title wasn't meant to imply the beer would have lactose in. Late night puns are hard, OK?
ReplyDeleteAnd I definitely don't get a creamy mouthfeel from Sam Adams or St Peter's cream stouts. With the Sam Adams I was really really trying to as well.
I'm rather fond the Porterhouse Oyster Stout with oysters in. It's not mindblowing, but it certainly doesn't taste wrong.
I must say, I do get a creamy mouthfeel from St Peter's Cream Stout (and I drink it often enough so I should know!)
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