Lacto

Beer Nut is a Dublin based guy who enjoys travel and beer 'preferably simultaneously'. In this post he takes a look at Maltese Lacto:

At a homebrew tasting in the pub last night one of the guys (hi Kevin) brought out a beer he'd picked up in Malta, a milk stout rejoicing in the name of Lacto. It's my second milk stout in the last week, and ever. There's even less to it than there is to the Left Hand. Again with the smooth milky texture, but basically no stouty roastiness: just a very sweet condensed-milk or Caramac flavour. What it reminded me most of was the malta soft drink I had in Cuba back in May -- just as easy drinking and, at 3.8% ABV, only a smidge more alcohol. It could pass for a lot weaker too.

I've never been to Malta, but it's somewhere I would like to visit (one of Mrs Beer Nut's distant relatives was shot down over it during the siege). I'm guessing that, faced with the the usual dull hot country lagers, Lacto is probably welcome relief when drinking Maltese beers. At a table in one of the best-stocked pubs in the country, however, it loses its special status quite quickly. Nevertheless, thanks Kevin, even if you only brought it to make your all-grain stout look good...