What type of beer is Sleight Of Hand?
Sleight of Hand is a Milk Stout.
A milk stout is a stout containing lactose, a sugar derived from milk. Because lactose cannot be fermented by beer yeast, it adds sweetness and body to the finished beer.
The Ingredients
They claim this is a spiced stout. There aren’t too many of them about so what exact spices are they going to include, i’m intrigued.
Sleight Of Hand includes…
- Malted barley
- Wheat
- Oats
- Lactose
- Vanilla
- Cardamom
- Fennel
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
- Black pepper
Shock and awe here! You don’t see many beer ingredient lists like that!
They are going down the chai flavour route with the cardamon, ginger and pepper. It will be really interesting to see how they can marry the chai flavours and vanilla into a stout. If these perfumed and strong flavours overpower the beer then it might be a bit nasty.
The Nutrition
That was quite the list of ingredients. How does it translate into the nutrition? I would guess a milk stout with lactose will have a reasonable amount of carbs and sugar, they usually do
| | Values per 100ml or 100g |
| Alcohol | 0.5% |
| Calories | ?kcal |
| Carbohydrate | ?g |
| Sugars | ?g |
Well isn’t that annoying. I really hate it when breweries don’ t give out the nutrition stats. Lowtide are bad for this when the beer is probably high in sugar but they are happy to tell you when a beer has only 10kcal per 100ml
My guess is this will have comparable nutrition stats to Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout.
It had…
27kcal/100ml
6.7g/100ml of carbs
3.1g/100ml of sugar
That put it on the high side but the beer was brilliant. I really hope this one is great and i can sort of forgive this.
The Look
It has quite a funky can art. The black represents the stout and then there is an open hand with an eyeball, all a bit supranatural…
The beer is a lovely black with a decent stout head.
The Aroma
For the amount of ingredients there isn’t a huge amount on the nose here which is a bit of a disappointment. You do get really rich malt and caramel along with some other higher notes.
Perhaps I was too dismissive. The more I smell the more I get from it. I can pick out the vanilla and ginger certainly
Ok, im excited to try this now
The Taste
I’ve accidently drank about half of this before starting writing. It is really rather morish.
In terms of normal stout flavours, they are all there. Deep malt, roasted coffee, chocolate etc and plenty of them. The milk and lactose element add enormously to the smoothness, body and mouthfeel here, it is a big big beer.
Then to consider the spices. You don’t want a really perfumed, overly spiced stout but it can take a bit of flavouring. This has walked the tightrope marvellously.
Looking at the list of ingredients whilst I drink I can convince myself I taste them all separately.
It is almost like a festive or Halloween type beer, it has those type of tones.
Im not sure how sick I would get of them after 2-3 but this one off can is delicious. It is anyones guess how much sugar is in here but I guess it is a decent amount anyway
The Verdict
I like it, perhaps not for lots but 1 or 2 would be nice, sitting beside a fire in the darest of winter nights.
The Score
8.5/10 – A festive, winter, spiced stout like no other other there. If you like stout, it is a must try.
Find out where this beer ranks compared to all the beers i have reviewed on my updated “Best Non Alcoholic Beers” page
Where to buy?
You can try these at Wise Bartender as well, a brilliant non alcoholic retailer
You can buy this at Sober Sauce and get 5% off with code OPENINGTHEBOTTLE
*Affiliate Disclosure – if you click on the links and buy from these providers, i might receive a small commission*
Is Sleight Of Hand Milk Stout gluten free?
No, this beer is not gluten free
I have an entire article on non alcoholic beers and gluten if you want more information.
Is Sleight Of Hand Milk vegan?
Sleight Of Hand Milk is not vegan friendly as it contains lactose which is the sugar in milk.
For more on vegan beers see my article on the matter. Why beers may or may not be and how to check.
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SUMMARY
A festive, winter, spiced stout like no other other there. If you like stout, it is a must try. |
4.3
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