Tap Handle #667: Left Hand - Milk Stout Nitro

November 05, 2017

Tap Handle #667: Left Hand - Milk Stout Nitro

Tap size: 10"
Rarity: readily available
Mounting: internal 3/8" nut

I think it's incredibly bizarre that two separate breweries in Colorado would independently create two taps that resemble each other, and then later merge together into one brewery. But that is exactly what happened! The Tabernash tap in profile #661 bears a strong resemblance to an older Left Hand tap handle that I will be profiling later. It also slightly resembles this tap, which is a black arm and hand holding a cowbell. The significance of the cowbell is of course the milk in the Milk Stout Nitro, which is the name of the beer and appears as recessed letters up the side of the arm. The cowbell has a decal on the front of it bearing a red hand and the name and location of the brewery. That same decal appears on the back of the hand as well.The glossy finish is highly reflective and makes taking photos difficult. Of the two modern Left Hand taps, this is the more rare and a little more expensive version, but still pops up regularly on the secondary market.

Click through to read more about Left Hand Brewing, their Milk Stout Nitro, and to see more photos of this eye-grabbing tap...

Left Hand Brewing Company was founded in Longmont, Colorado in 1993 by Dick Doore and Eric Wallace. The two men had become friends while at the Air Force Academy, and their stint in the military took them across the globe, giving them ample opportunity to taste the best and brightest brews. But it was Wallace's first Sam Adams that opened his eyes to craft beer. Meanwhile, Doore got his first home brew kit as a Christmas gift from his brother. When he came back home he re-connected with Wallace, they began to make beer at night while searching for jobs during the day. After brewing several batches that impressed their friends and neighbors, Doore and Wallace became more confident in their craft, and with job prospects still bleak, decided to start their own brewery.

After incorporating in 1993, they searches for a location, settling on the site of a former meat packing plant next to the St. Vrain River near downtown Longmont. originally calling it Indian Peaks Brewing Company, they changed the name to Left Hand after they discovered that a competing brewery was using the Indian Peaks name. The name Left Hand came from Chief Niwot (meaning left handed), a Southern Arapahoe chief whom wintered his tribe in the Boulder Valley area of Colorado. They opened their doors for business in early 1994, with their first beer being Sawtooth Ale, an ESB-inspired Amber Ale, which became their original flagship brew. Later that year, Left Hand took home two medals at the Great American Beer Festival, a Gold Medal for Sawtooth Ale, and a Bronze Medal for Black Jack Porter.

In 1995, the brewery began to sell bottled beer and wanted to put their logo, a Native American design, on the bottle caps. But when the logo was shrunk down it was rendered illegible. Left Hand created a small hand to be the logo, which the company still uses today. In 1998 Left Hand merged with Tabernash Brewing, and doubled the size of their brewery. They began packaging 12 oz. bottles for 6 packs (up to that point they had been bottling 22 oz. bottles and kegs exclusively). Later that year, they started their own distribution business, Indian Peaks Distribution Company. But over the next 10 years the Tabernash brand was phased out and the distribution was sold off to allow the brewery to focus more on brewing operations.

After Doore visited Tanzania, Africa, where he enjoyed the slightly sweet Milk Stouts that were popular in the African country, he was inspired to produce a similar product. It debuted in the taproom in 1999 before eventually getting an official release in 2001. While it became a favorite in many a bar and restaurant, the brewers were having fun experimenting with nitrogen. They found they could create the thick and creamy mouthfeel that was already known for being a hallmark property in mass-produced draft stouts such as Guinness or Murphy’s. Over time, nitro began to mean something more to Left Hand and its customers than just the type of gas its beer was dispensed under. It grew to become a hallmark of Left Hand’s own making, even leading them to put on a steampunk-themed festival dedicated to nitro-poured beers called Nitro Fest. In 2011 Left Hand launched Milk Stout Nitro in bottles at the Great American Beer Festival. This was the first time a brewery had figured out how to package a nitrogenized beer without the use of a plastic widget to gas the beer once opened. Milk Stout Nitro began to successfully challenge Guinness, and soon earned the nickname "America's Stout", making up 50% of the production line. In the fall of 2012, Left Hand opened a new bottling line that ran four times faster than their previous system and filled 200 bottles per minute.

After expansions that had added the tasting room to the original building, the new bottling line, and the addition of several buildings across 25,000 square feet and 2.1 acres, in 2013 the brewery was damaged by a "500 year flood", which hit most of Longmont hard. During the flood, the brewery was submerged in more than four feet of water, inflicting serious damage. One of the fermentation vessels lost power, and without electricity, the brewery had no control of the tank’s coolant system and subsequently couldn’t control the fermentation process. The entire contents of the tank - more than 15,000 gallons of Fade to Black Imperial Stout - had to be dumped. Left Hand had to evacuate the brewery for four days while the waters receded. The flood damage would cost the brewery $140,000, with the repair work continuing for months. Despite having a significant impact on the business, the brewery used its local influence to drive and fund relief efforts and played a key role in getting the town back on its feet.

In 2014, Left Hand purchased a 14,200-square-foot building for just under $1 million, located just east of two buildings bought the previous year that were added to the main brewery and bringing the total acreage to 5.5 acres. The building was slated for dry storage, a maintenance shop and offices. The brewery also added 12,000 square feet to the south end of its main production building to house the laboratories that are part of its quality control systems, along with more offices. In 2015, the brewery converted into a majority employee-owned company. Wallace owns about a quarter of the company and is the largest shareholder, while co-founder Doore is the third largest. Together, the nine members of the board of directors own 75 percent of the brewery. But that will change over the years as Left Hand contributes stock to the ESOP trust, with each eligible employee receiving an annual allocation.

In 2016 the brewery was forced to recall at least 20,000 cases of Milk Stout Nitro because a foreign yeast got into the mix and put way too much fizz into bottles. The beer was safe to drink, however during a "hard pour" - flipping the bottle upside down into a glass - he brew was likely to overflow. In addition Left Hand had to dump beer that was in production and scour its production lines. It was a mystery how the foreign brewing yeast, which looks just like Left Hand’s house ale yeast under the microscope, came in contact with the house ale yeast and got into bottles, creating a secondary fermentation. Also in 2016 the brewery, long an advocate for bottle over cans, installed a canning line after discovering BPA-free cans that were being used in Europe.

Currently Left Hand is the 44th largest craft brewery in the U.S. with distribution to 40 states, the District of Columbia, and throughout Europe & Japan. They have won over 28 Great American Beer Festival medals, 11 World Beer Cup awards, and 9 European Beer Star awards. The brewery has contributed $2.8M since 2008 in donations and goods to Colorado and beyond, with at least 1% of net profits going to charity every year, and a green committee driving the brewery to make environmentally friendly improvements like a photovoltaic power system.

Dark & delicious, America’s great milk stout will change your perception about what a stout can be. Pouring hard out of the bottle, Milk Stout Nitro cascades beautifully, building a tight, thick head like hard whipped cream. Milk Stout Nitro is also good to go from the can with widget inside technology, or like a pro in a glass. The aroma is of brown sugar and vanilla cream, with hints of roasted coffee. The pillowy head coats your upper lip and its creaminess entices your palate. Initial roasted, mocha flavors rise up, with slight hop & roast bitterness in the finish. The rest is pure bliss of milk chocolate fullness. Recommended food pairings are Chocolate Bread Pudding with Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro Whipped Cream, Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake with Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro Fudge Sauce, Ancho Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Fig Milk Stout Sauce, Maple Stout Glazed Butternut Squash, Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Shallots & Bacon Stout Vinaigrette, Nitro Oreo Cupcakes, and

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon, Beer and Cayenne.