Tag Archives: ba

5 - Excellent (must buy), Beer Reviews, England, Mills Brewing, Wild Ale

Mills Picture Pot Blend 3

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Brewery: Mills Brewing
Country: England
ABV: 6%
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

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Picture Pot was made from a blend of three brews produced in January and November 2019. Fermentation took place in Californian Chardonnay and Herefordshire cider barrels. The resulting blend was dry hopped with whole leaf Loral and Enigma. Drink young for fresh hop aromatics and aged for increased brettanomyces funk.

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.5
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in April 2021, with a best before date of April 2026. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy golden colour with a two finger white head that had pretty good retention and eventually settled to a nice fluffy cap, while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Green apple, grapefruit peel, white wine grapes, vinous, grape gummy candy, light berry notes, oak, citrus zest.
Taste: Light to moderate tart and sourness, white wine grapes, grape gummy candy, light oak, citrus zest, and a touch of funk.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: Really nice aroma and flavours, and just so easy and enjoyable to drink. This is great to drink right now, but I wish I had another bottle to age since I do enjoy funk, and it would have been interesting to see how this ages.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, England, Mills Brewing, Wild Ale

Mills Okay

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Brewery: Mills Brewing
Country: England
ABV: 6%
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

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Okay was made from a blend of two golden worts produced in April and August 2019. Fermentation took place in two ex Ross cider barrels and two white Burgundy barrels. Raw Scottish heather honey was added just prior to bottling. This provided sugar for conditioning as well as trapping the delicate earthy aromatics in the bottle. The resulting beer is relatively full-bodied with a surprisingly fluffy mouthfeel.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.98
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 750ml corked and capped bottle, bottled in November 2020, with a best before date of November 2025. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen stemmed glass.
Appearance: A slightly hazy golden orange colour with a big almost three finger white head that had good retention and left some nice lacing.
Aroma: Dusty, funky, white grape, apple cider, oak, hay, dried leaves with a twang of lemon zest.
Taste: Tart, lightly sour, juicy, white wine vinous, grapefruit, minerals.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Not sure I get the honey, but this was just refreshing and enjoyable.

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, 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.