Mia's milk stout

It'd be crazily out of character for me not to celebrate the birth of my first daughter without a good bout of brewing, not to mention the opportunity it gives me to imprint on the newborn mind the heady scents of a roiling brewpot, which in turn might just help ensure me a future assistant. In a vein similar to Chris' "Mother's Milk Porter" albeit without the use of anything as exotic as fenugreek*, I've scratched up this little recipe for a soot-black autumnal fireside nocturne.

And while making a dedicated wine that could rest in the cellar until she's of legal drinking age would certainly be fabulously poetic, I just happen to be a beermaker. Thus, this recipe is more for mom's comfort on these increasingly dark and chill-ridden eves - good calorie content, not too boozy, chocolatey and sweet, and packed with carbs - by which it will certainly make its way into the system of our sleepy little sprout.

Enjoy.

* Hey kids! Did you know that fenugreek is the main flavor ingredient in fake maple syrup pancake topping? And that it's also advocated as an herbal supplement for nursing mothers? And that if you take enough of it, you start to smell like Aunt Jemima and make your husband crave short stacks around the clock?