Category Archives: Beer Reviews

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Heroes Beer Co., Hong Kong, Stout - Milk / Sweet Imperial

Heroes BR&MSBAIMSwMSCN&V (4th Anniversary)

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Brewery: Heroes Beer Co.
Country: Hong Kong
ABV: 10.4%
Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet Imperial
Other Notes: Bottle 307 of 720

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Bourbon, Rye, and Maple Syrup Barrel Aged Imperial Milk Stout with Maple Syrup, Cacao Nibs and Vanilla. Imagine eating a chocolate pancake with maple syrup while drinking an Americano. Starts off with dessert-like aromas of maple syrup, vanilla, and dark chocolate notes. Follows through with a complex but smooth malt profile with dark chocolate, espresso beans, raisins, dark caramel and toasted bread. Bitterness is medium but enough to support the sweetness. Medium oak character from bourbon, rye whisky, and maple syrup barrels comes through to help add structure to palate.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A boxed, black waxed, 650ml bomber, bottle 307 of 720, packaged on 4th October 2021, and with a best before date of 4th October 2024. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: Dark brown to black in colour with pretty much no head and no lacing.
Aroma: Maple syrup, dried dark fruit, raisins, prunes, vanilla, bourbon, light roast, chocolate, caramel.
Taste: Sweet, bourbon, dried dark fruit, raisins, prunes, maple syrup, caramel, vanilla, chocolate, light roast.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, velvety, full bodied with no carbonation.
Overall: Great aroma, but it was too sweet for me. I don’t get the bitterness that the description talks about, which would definitely help it along. It’s okay as a sipper, but usually when I think sipper, it’s due to the apparent alcohol or alcohol strength rather than because of it’s sweetness, and I easily preferred both the 2nd and 3rd anniversary beers.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, England, Mills Brewing x Little Earth Project, Wild Ale

Mills x Little Earth Project Mire

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Brewery: Mills Brewing x Little Earth Project
Country: England
ABV: 7%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Mills Brewing make beer with minimal modern intervention, relying on local wild yeast cultures and the influence of nature to ferment. Little Earth Project is a small and unique brewery in the Suffolk countryside using a variety of sustainable practices to brew small batch, predominantly oak aged wild and sour beers

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Mire was brewed in August 2019 with LEP’s homegrown malt. It fermented for sixteen months in cider barrels with both brewer’s house cultures. The resulting beer was dry-hopped with whole leaf Goldings before seven months maturation in bottle.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.21
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in December 2020, with a best before date of December 2025. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A clear dark orange copper colour with a big three finger white head that had good retention, while eventually settling to a nice fluffy cap, and leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Musty, dusty, funk, apple, pear, orange zest, with a splash of leather and peat.
Taste: Sweet and sour, apple, orange zest, orange sherbet, oak, leather, peat.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Definitely interesting because I wasn’t expecting the peat and nothing on the bottle indicated that there would be peat, although in retrospect, maybe the name ‘Mire’ was a hint. Looking for other info, it turns out the peat was from a cider barrel that previously held Laphroaig. In any case, the amount of peat was good and not overpowering, and complemented all the other flavours.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, England, Farmhouse Grissette, Mills Brewing

Mills Grisette Perry

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Brewery: Mills Brewing
Country: England
ABV: 4.5%
Style: Farmhouse Grisette
Other Notes: Mills Brewing make beer with minimal modern intervention, relying on local wild yeast cultures and the influence of nature to ferment

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Grisette Perry was made from a turbid mash containing barley and oats. The resulting wort was hopped with Sorachi Ace in the boil and Amarillo in the coolship. Fermentation took place in a single ex-Scotch barrel with juice from Gloucestershire grown Gin perry pears. The finished beer was primed with Conference pear juice to provide the sugars for bottle conditioning.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.29
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in December 2020, with a best before date of December 2025. Poured into a Holy Mountain tulip glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden straw yellow colour with a big almost three finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly to a thin but fluffy cap, while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Funky, wood, pear, apple.
Taste: Tart, sour, pear, apple, lemon juice, funk, oak.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with moderate to high crisp carbonation.
Overall: Light, bright and enjoyable. Just so easy to drink with refreshing pear notes.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, De Struise Brouwers, Stout - Russian Imperial

De Struise Black Damnation XXIV – Octopussy

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Brewery: De Struise Brouwers
Country: Belgium
ABV: 13%
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Other Notes: Bottle 1275/2000, 2012 vintage

Brewer Description: (from bottle) A massive stout from Flanders aged in Octomore barrels.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.3
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml bottle, number 1275/2000, 2012 vintage, bottled on 23rd March 2017. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: Black in colour with a thin half finger brown head that dissipated fairly quickly, but left some spotty lacing.
Aroma: Roasted malts, peat, leather, whisky, chocolate, leaning sweet from the dry dark fruit, prunes, raisin.
Taste: Light to medium sweetness, whisky, peat, roasted malts, chocolate, candied prunes, brown sugar.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Generally, Octomore is among my preferred whiskeys, and it showed up nicely in the aroma. In the flavour, the peat was not coming through as strongly as compared to the aroma, although I’m not entirely sure if it’s because of aging as I did not take notes when I tried it in 2018 and 2020. It’s still an enjoyable sipper and among my favourite Black Damnations along with Coffee Club and Hollow.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales, Sour Ale, USA

Black Project Mallow

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Brewery: Black Project Spontaneous & Wild Ales
Country: USA
ABV: 7.4%
Style: Sour Ale

Brewer Description: (from can) Sour Ale with blueberry and vanilla.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.75
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 473ml can, canned on 21st July 2021, poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy copper orange with a pinkish hue, and a two finger lightly pinkish head that dissipated quickly while leaving some lacing.
Aroma: A bit weak but what’s there is nice, tart, blueberry, lemon zest, vanilla.
Taste: Sour, tart, bubbly, blueberry, vanilla, lemon zest.
Mouthfeel: Medium to light bodied with overly high carbonation.
Overall: This sounded good, but in the end I was a bit disappointed. The vanilla definitely saved this beer, and without it, I don’t think I would’ve like it at all. Other than that, it was also overly carbonated as each sip just coated my gums with bubbles.