Naylor’s: Martha’s Chocolate Milk Stout (England: Sweet Stout: 4.5% ABV)
Visual: Black to very dark brown at the edges. Small gray brown dash of a head.
Nose: Roasted nuts. Chalky. Light smoke. Bitter coffee beans. Liquorice touch. Cola bottles.
Body: Light lactose. Blackcurrant sour sweets. Sour dough. Malt loaf. Raisins. Malt chocolate. Blueberry. Roasted nuts. Cola bottles.
Finish: Blackcurrant sweets. Blueberry. Light charring. Light smoke. Vinegar crisps (minus the salt) Light apples. Lactose. Milky coffee. Roasted.
Conclusion: You know, for a chocolate milk stout, this really runs a lot of sweet dark fruit notes in its flavor mix. There is some chocolate in there – working as a smooth backing to the rest of the beer – but there is far less than its name would suggest.
So, ignoring the expectations that the name brings, is this any good? Well, it is not bad – it has that light sour touch I would associate with a good quality bitter and the roasted nuttiness I would expect of a standard stout. Added to that is the touch of lactose feel that a milk stout brings – so we have the expected notes, the less common but not unusual notes, then the kind of unusual influence of the light sour bitter notes. That light sour character mixes well with the dark fruit that I mentioned before to create a mild sour-sweet set of notes that give refreshing flavours, but also a slightly thinner mouthfeel.
So it is slightly unusual in style, but kind of middle of the road in flavor quality. It is definitely not bad but the unusual elements seem to neither enhance nor detract from the beer – they are just there as a different way of doing things. The light sour touch is refreshing, and the fruit notes are a nice touch, but a lot of the stout notes are just a mild backing until we reach the more roasted finish.
It really doesn’t sell the imagery the name promises and ends up a beer that feels like a mix of a quarter bitter, one quarter stout, half milk stout – interesting but not more than the sum of its parts.
An ok pint, but not really one that I can be too enthusiastic about recommending.
Background: This was the third of three beers that my parents gave to me when they came down to visit. Many thanks! If you have been paying attention, and wonder what happened to notes on the second one. I just drank it. No notes. I am the worst of monsters. It was pretty good. Anyway, been a while since I had a Naylor beer, if I remember rightly I quite enjoyed their barley wine on cask when I was up in Manchester. That was a while back. Anyway, drank this with some Meshuggah – Obzen! I could give some convoluted reason, but I was just feeling a bit shitty and wanted some super heavy music to listen to. It was awesome. For some reason I imagine Superman drinking this beer, comments on it, and suddenly Batman bursts in and goes “MARTHA! Why did you say that name? WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?” Because I am a geek.
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