Beginning on July 31st (draft) and August 1st (six-packs of 12 ounce bottles), Tough Kitty Milk Stout, our brand new fall seasonal beer, debuts in the Greater Kansas City Area with other regions to follow soon! The third Tasting Room beer to formally enter our lineup (following in the footsteps of Ginger Lemon Radler and Heavy Lifting IPA) Tough Kitty was born as a 35 bbl test batch available exclusively in our Tasting Room and Beer Hall before graduating to our Sample 12 Pack where it received rave reviews.

The positive reception of Tasting Room Milk Stout and the desire of our brewers to play around with (and drink!) a lower ABV stout came at the right time as we’re always looking to keep our seasonal lineup of beers rotational and fresh in the same manner that our brewing team enjoys the challenge of taking a beer from the test phase to a finished beer ready for wider distribution.

As for the name Tough Kitty, we worked through our usual naming process which involves drinking the beer and sending several dozen emails back and forth before arriving on a few final choices. With our favorite names already snagged by others in the beer world, we were bemoaning how tough it is to come up with a beer name that’s not taken. We began discussing animals that drink milk and immediately leapt to kitty. Boom! The rest is history.

Tough Kitty Milk Stout features layers of caramel and chocolate malt complexity provided by Cara 120, Cara 300 and Patagonia Black Pearl. The addition of rolled oats in the mash tun and lactose, commonly referred to as milk sugar, in the wort kettle lend a round, silky mouthfeel to the beer. Subtle hopping with Bravo and Cascade creates just enough bitterness to prevent the beer from being overly cloying. Deep black in color, Tough Kitty opens with aromas of bittersweet chocolate, espresso and toffee that transition to flavors of the same. The addition of lactose, a non-fermentable sugar, works with the rolled oats to deliver a creamy, lingering finish.

Tough Kitty Milk Stout is 5.5% ABV, 27 IBUs and is a great partner to Mexican Molé, spicy BBQ, smoked cheeses, chocolate cake, crème brulee and sugar cookies.

- Jeremy Danner, Ambassador Brewer