![milk-stout-bourbon-2[1]](https://thebeerspy.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/milk-stout-bourbon-21.jpg?w=723)
According to German craft brewer Camba Bavaria, they received a visit from the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety in 2014, who took samples of Camba beers to be tested. Several months later they received an order to halt all sales of the Milk Stout as this internationally recognized beer style is not considered beer by the Bavarian government.
Milk stouts are brewed with dark roasted malts just like regular stouts, but they have more residual unfermented sugars that add both sweetness and a thicker body. The sweetness and body in a milk stout comes from lactose, a type of sugar that is found in milk. So milk stouts don’t actually contain milk, but get their name from the sugar derived from milk.
THE GOVERNMENT’S REASONING
(This is all according to Camba and I have not been able to obtain a copy of the government’s report)
The government’s findings were that the beer was not a beer but must be classified as an “other drink” and that the term “Milk Stout” was an “invented,” or “fantastical” description of the beer. However, the report also stated that “Milk Stout” is a recognized traditional beer style among English speaking countries, and then went on to argue that consumers may be confused or misled into mistakenly thinking that Milk Stout is a beer.
The nearly 500 year old Reinheitsgebot states beer can only be made with malt, hops, and water; yeast was added to the list after it was understood that the microorganisms, and not little baby angels, were the source of fermentation. This law was replaced in the early 1990s, but current regulations still strictly prohibit what can legally be in Bavarian brewed beer. Some German states, such as Thuringen, do make exceptions for beer styles like Belgian Wit, which often contains coriander or other spices along with wheat and sometimes oats. Bavaria on the other hand makes no exceptions, and not only told Camba they could no longer sell their Milk Stout, but demanded that all of the remaining beer be destroyed.
CAMBA’s REACTION
Camba decided to get creative. They tried to market their Milk Stout under the category of “other beverage” with the name “KLIM TOUTS.” They then requested that the German government no longer tax the drink as a beer since the law says it isn’t a beer. Unfortunately the German government determined that it’s still considered beer for tax purposes.
With the inability to market Milk Stout as a beer, and still having to pay full beer taxes, Camba has been forced to end all production and sales of their Milk Stout, and other beer styles may also be banned in Bavaria. Recently Camba reported that agents of the same government office that investigated their milk stout returned to the brewery and took samples of their other beers, including their coffee Stout, saison, and strawberry hefeweizen.
And what do others think of this beer? Well, Camba’s bourbon aged version of their Milk Stout won the Meiningers (a prestigious German beer and wine industry organization) International Craft Beer Award for Best Beer of 2015, but don’t tell that to the Bavarians.
![milk-stout-bourbon-1[1]](https://thebeerspy.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/milk-stout-bourbon-11.jpg?w=723)
The Beer Spy 
Ahhh, good ol’ government. You can’ tell it as beer, but we’re definitely going to tax it as beer.
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What exactly was the reasoning for finding it “not a beer?”
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Hi Dale, the reasoning is that lactose is not one of the ingredients that the Bavarian government has approved for beer. Another unapproved ingredient is coffee, and according to Camba they have also ended production of their coffee stout after the same government agency took samples for testing and their lawyers advised that this beer will also be considered “not a beer.”
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The Germans beer purity law states that only Water hops malt and yeast constitutes beer. Anything else is not beer. And believe you me, the germans are REAL sticklers for following the rules !
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Is it not the case that this is the local Bavarian State Government, and not the central German Federal Government making these idiotic decisions? As in: these ruling only apply in Bavaria. There are breweries making and selling Milk Stout in other states,
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Barry, you are correct that it is the Bavarian government that says Milk Stout cannot be sold as a beer. I only know of one other milk stout brewed in Germany but it is from Ale-Mania in Bonn, which is in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
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Then why not correct the headline? (It is, I suppose, technically correct, as the Bavarian government is *a* German government, but that’s not what people will understand it to mean)
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Hey Beer Spy, some of the stuff you said here is wrong.
The Reinheitsgebot hasn’t had any legal quality for decades.
You can sell Beer with Lactose, or Beer with Coffee – you just can’t call it Beer.
There is a law that regulates that “everything that is in the name has to be in the product”.
Obviously, as “Milk stout” contains no Milk, you can’t call it “Milk stout”.
Same with the coffee stout.
The tax situation is separately: Every product that is brewed is taxes as “Brewage”, which is commonly called “Beer Tax” – but it also applies to brewed non-alcoholics, like the drink Bionade.
So, please correct your inaccuracies, thanks.
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That’s okay, I don’t consider the Bavarian government a legitimate form of government -especially for tax purposes ;P
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[…] it’s flagship brew, Milkshake Stout, as a beer that falls within a legitimate style (see related story) Rochester Mills Beer Co. and Production Brewery say they have no plans to export any of their beers […]
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[…] But apparently we have it good compared to Germany. Apparently one craft brewer over there has been banned from selling its milk stout as a beer (even though it’s still getting taxed as a beer) because it contains no milk and the German […]
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[…] https://thebeerspy.com/2015/08/20/german-government-sours-on-milk-stout-bans-the-beer-style/ […]
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[…] So as you might know this year is the 500 year birthday of the reinheitsgebot. A couple of monthes ago Camba bavaria had a runin with bavarian lawmakers. Basically the government said that Milk Stout wasn’t a beer style that could be sold as beer in bavaria. Even if you win awards with it. If you want to read up what happened here’s an article that explains it a lot better than I ever could: What happend at Camba […]
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[…] I’m not the biggest fan of the 500 year old Reinheitsgebot, also known as the German Beer Purity Law. The law is touted by marketing departments as the reason German beer is of such high quality, but the truth is that Germany makes great beer because German brewers take their craft extremely seriously. Unfortunately this long held belief in the Reinheitsgebot has led to most German brewers putting all that skill into making the exact four same beers anywhere you go in the country. Of course things are changing in some parts of Germany, and with this being the 500th year anniversary of Reinheitsgebot I’ve decided to research, and attempt to brew, many of the beers that were suddenly made illegal by this law. […]
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