Santa’s Road Soda Milk Stout

Lasting Brass Santa’s Road Soda Milk Stout (Experimental No. 3)
Gifted by the brewer, 5% ABV

Handed over somewhere

soda”Santa’s Road Soda?” That’s a good one. The double milk stout is even better than the name, sure, but the name is what initially gets your attention.

Unfortunately for you, unless you are a FOE (Friend of Ed, which should be amended to be CFOE as in, “Close Friend of Ed” as his circle of friends is surely growing due to his homebrewing prowess), you can be drawn in by the name all you want but never taste the beer. Sucker.

Not only is this beer a homebrew and not for sale anywhere, it was the third of Ed’s Experimental Series, meaning quantities were further limited. Merry Christmas to me.

I’ll admit – and I heard others say the same – when we heard what Ed was concocting back in the fall, it didn’t sound all that enticing. Even now, read the description…

Lasting Brass Says:

Our holiday double milk stout brewed with eggnog spices. This beer was aged on vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks that were soaked with spiced rum. Make sure to leave a pint for Santa with his cookies this year.

Maybe you love eggnog (I don’t) or spiced beer (nope) or rum (not me), but that still doesn’t sound all that great. If you feel that way then you, like me, are also an idiot. Because this is Lasting Brass here, and Lasting Brass knows what they’re (aka “he”) doing.

This beer was smooth as silk and the eggnogginess was barely discernable – but only added to the flavor profile. We all loves stouts aged on vanilla beans and the spiced rum was again, there but not in your face. All that complexity worked. Lasting Brass is ridiculous.

We don’t hear the term “Road Soda” too much these days, so if you’re out of the loop, a road soda is an “alcoholic beverage (usually beer or perhaps malt drunksantaliquor) consumed inside a moving vehicle. This beverage can be consumed by passenger, driver, or both. Road sodas are illegal in most states due to open container laws. Still, they are widely enjoyed as evidenced by all the beer cans littering rural roadsides.” (from the Urban Dictionary)

One interesting quirk about our fine state of Connecticut, land of the Blue Laws and other starched collar legal ennui, is that road sodas are perfectly legal here! This comes up every now and then on wacky morning radio and our legislative bodies. I think we are one of only 7 states where passengers can opening imbibe alcohol.

No, drivers cannot. You dope.

It’s really pretty strange, isn’t it? Booze couldn’t be sold past 8 PM until recently and never on Sundays. There are a million antiquated alcohol production and restaurant/bar selling laws in Connecticut that would make your head spin. And yet, you can ride in a car from Greenwich to Putnam and down 3 40-oz Crooked I’s if you want.

So one must wonder, if Santa were to grab one of his namesake road sodas from Lasting Brass and down it while flying off, would the law accept that the true driver of the sleigh was Rudolph and not Santa.

To wit:

Then one foggy Christmas eve
Santa came to say
“Rudolph, with your nose so bright
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Your Honor, this comes down to the definition and true intent of the word “guide.” With Rudolph guiding the sleigh, was he or wasn’t he driving it?

I leave that to the jury to decide. But no jury is needed to judge this beer incredible.

Overall Rating: A+
Rating vs. Similar style: A+

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