Lancaster Brewing Milk Stout

I have purchased my final 6 of this beer. Never again!

Three of the 6 times I have had it, the beer has been sour. Granted the times it wasn't, it was a decent milk stout. All 6 of tonight's bottles were as sour as you would expect a flemish sour to be and wound up going down the drain....sad considering I am with-in two hours of the brewery and where I bought it has a decent turn over. Good thing I have a few chilled homebrews to save the day.

Any other PA locals have this experience with this beer? My experience with the milk stout makes me wary of their other brews.

I've only had the milk stout once and it was fine. That's unfortunate you've had problems with it. Have you, by chance, contacted the brewery about it?

trinitone said:

I've only had the milk stout once and it was fine. That's unfortunate you've had problems with it. Have you, by chance, contacted the brewery about it?

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I have not..I was planning on letting them know that some bad beer is getting out there. Either way, the time between purchases has been pretty wide (several months) and from two different places. Shame, I really like to see the local brews keep gaining ground.

I've had the Milk Stout before and I too thought it was too sour. For the most part I like Lancaster Brewing Co; but my best experiences with any of their beers have been right there at the brewery. Their food is decent too. Actually their chicken wings are some of the best I've ever had, Creepin Dog Hot. These wings will set your mouth on fire but have an irresitable sweetness to them that keeps you eating more. Then the beer really goes down nice.

I've been curious about trying this beer quite often...maybe I'll hold off for a while until the current local stock rotates...

You know, this is a good oppty to score some free beer. :rockin:

I've had it at the Lancaster Distillery (restaurant) and thought it was pretty good. It definitely wasn't sour.

Who's your distributor? Maybe they're buying old cases?

ayrton said:

I've had it at the Lancaster Distillery (restaurant) and thought it was pretty good. It definitely wasn't sour.

Who's your distributor? Maybe they're buying old cases?

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That's the thing, I have had it from a few different places and it was sour from more than one of them (6 packs and individual bottles, no cases). Sure they could be buying from the same wholesale distributor but who knows. I sure am not going to keep rolling the dice on this one.

Now you've got me wondering about it. It is very possible that they are all purchasing from the same distributor. I'll have to go get a bottle and see how it tastes.

trinitone said:

Now you've got me wondering about it. It is very possible that they are all purchasing from the same distributor. I'll have to go get a bottle and see how it tastes.

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If you do, you will have no problem determining if you got a sour one or not

IIRC, the last time I had a good sample it was 2 bottles from the Washington House in Sellersville.

I've had one sampler case of theirs and that was enough for me. Their beers aren't bad, but if I'm going to drink local I'd rather have Stoudt's.

brewt00l said:

I have purchased my final 6 of this beer. Never again!

Three of the 6 times I have had it, the beer has been sour. Granted the times it wasn't, it was a decent milk stout. All 6 of tonight's bottles were as sour as you would expect a flemish sour to be and wound up going down the drain....sad considering I am with-in two hours of the brewery and where I bought it has a decent turn over. Good thing I have a few chilled homebrews to save the day.

Any other PA locals have this experience with this beer? My experience with the milk stout makes me wary of their other brews.

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I've yet to have one of their beers taste good, we pretty much swore off them.

Not trying to make excuses for them but here's our in-house guru's perspective on distribution, etc.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=20962

Brewpastor said:

We also made a deal with the devil, sold our souls and bought a pasteurizer. The reality was nobody between us and the customer cared about how our beer was handled. It would sit in a hot warehouse, ride in hot trucks, sit on sunny shelves. We could not afford the other options and so we configured a means to do in bottle pasteurization. Of course this meant the beer was degraded, but at least it was stable. As I look back I can clearly see the slow slip from the purest ideals of our home brewing roots to the compromised realities of our commercial venture. But at the time they were all basic decisions about surviving.

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olllllo said:

Not trying to make excuses for them but here's our in-house guru's perspective on distribution, etc.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=20962

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One thing I do know for sure is that I won't be purchasing their product again...excuses or not, getting undrinkable product in half of my purchases from different locations isn't really making the grade when it comes to who gets my commercial beer money.

I was just there a few weeks ago. We had a tour from the restaraunt manager. He was less knowledgeable than a brewmaster would be, but I think he told us some stuff a brewmaster would never admit to. He told us the bottling machine messes up at about every 4th bottle! The employees get to buy cases of half-filled bottles for $5 each. So I think their packaging may leave a lot to be desired, and this might be why you are getting sour beer.

In house was pretty good. They do make decent beer, but I'd go get it at the bar or buy a keg.

What are the chance you guys are from the clearfield, PA area?????

The other night I picked up the same sour stout for my first bottleing night and you know what.......sour, I almost tosed my cookies!

Fire_travels said:

What are the chance you guys are from the clearfield, PA area?????

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Phila metro

The other night I was in the local 6-pack and brought up that I had a bad (SOUR) 6 pack of Lan. M.S. and ask if there was anthing they could do! ......he talked to the owner........tonight when I went in, I got a replacement 6 pack of Sam adams!!!!! no question asked....... They just asked me to bring in the bottles I have left.

See you at the bottem!

Fire_travels said:

The other night I was in the local 6-pack and brought up that I had a bad (SOUR) 6 pack of Lan. M.S. and ask if there was anthing they could do! ......he talked to the owner........tonight when I went in, I got a replacement 6 pack of Sam adams!!!!! no question asked....... They just asked me to bring in the bottles I have left.

See you at the bottem!

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:rockin:

I would have returned my 6 'cept it was a bit chilly and I wasn't in the mood to go back out in it. fwiw, I sent lancaster an email the day after I posted this thread to let them know where I bought the spoiled beer and they haven't followed up with me since.

I had some left hand milk stout sunday . I would rate this beer a 50 out of 50 .
one of the best beers ever !!

Just wanted to tell you guys that I too am done with this beer. I live in southern New Jersey, which isn't that far from Lancaster, and I picked up a 6 pack of the Milk Stout last week. I drank one and it tasted sour. I drank another one and it tasted the same. I went to drink the third one and the freaking cap wasn't even properly on so their was no carbonation. I just tossed the rest of them. What a shame.

Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but I just saw it. Anyway, I spent a couple months working at LBC back when it first opened, shoveling grains and such. I sent a note to the brewmaster with a link to this thread. I'll let you know if he gets back to me.

muzleldr said:

I had some left hand milk stout sunday . I would rate this beer a 50 out of 50 .
one of the best beers ever !!

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I had a sampler case of Left Hand brews that included the milk stout and that was some good stuff. The Black Jack Porter was pretty tasty too and I enjoyed that more than their milk stout.

BNVince said:

Just wanted to tell you guys that I too am done with this beer. I live in southern New Jersey, which isn't that far from Lancaster, and I picked up a 6 pack of the Milk Stout last week. I drank one and it tasted sour. I drank another one and it tasted the same. I went to drink the third one and the freaking cap wasn't even properly on so their was no carbonation. I just tossed the rest of them. What a shame.

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..I agree, when you get a good one it is a tasty beer. Shame I won't buy it again either.

Bike N Brew said:

Hey guys, I know this is an old thread, but I just saw it. Anyway, I spent a couple months working at LBC back when it first opened, shoveling grains and such. I sent a note to the brewmaster with a link to this thread. I'll let you know if he gets back to me.

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FWIW, I never received any follow up from LBC on my original email. If they do read this thread, they should note there is obviously enough of an issue to require some follow up on the condition of their beer when it reaches consumers. These days there is such an abundance of choice when it comes to craft beer (heck even PA craft beer alone) that I would be hard pressed to roll the dice on any of their product.