Mill Street Mix-Six part three of three

Welcome back beerfans! Sorry for the delay in posting my final foray down Highway 400 to Mill Street brewery, however a slightly stuffy nose had left me tasting styrofoam for a couple of days. Tonight's trip was to co-incide with a special day in the beer world (well not for me... but ) January 24 1935 was the first day beer was placed in beer cans an offered for sale. The American Can company who had been working on canning beer since 1909 but took a break during a large kerfuffle called the Volstead Act, Noble Experiment, or Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Oh, you probably know it as prohibition which, co-coincidently was enacted on January 17 1919 and lasted for over 14 years until good old Teddy Roosevelt said those immortal words everyone had been longing to hear: "What America needs now... is a drink." In 1934 American Can approached the Gottfried Krueger Beer Company of Newark New Jersey to sell them a canning line and offered to built it for them and pay for the first few testing batches. In June 1934 The brewery selected 1000 homes in Richmond, VA. and delivered 4 cans of Krueger Beer to each of them along with a questionnaire. The results were very positive (hopefully they dropped off Krueger "Church-keys" as well!) and The Krueger brewery began production  and finally release the first canned beer the following January. As a tribute the final beer we will taste today will be Mill Street 's patio sipper Lemon Tea Beer, in a can.

On to tonight's tasting.


Beer # 22 Betelgeuse Belgian Style Tripel

Belgian Ale is generally a strong beer brewed by Trappist monks in the Flemmish nation. The three most common are Blonde, Dubbel, and Tripel. Dubbel is a strong bown ale while Blonde and Tripel are variations on a pale ale. Tripels usually weigh in between 8 and 10% ABV, our's tonight is an 8.5% ABV. Tripels, were as I said invented by Trappist monks at the Westmalle brewery, however, they never got around to copy-writing the name (which no-one really seems to know the origin of anyway, we suspect it refers to the strength of alcohol in some way) So today a lot of unscrupulous breweries have used the name Dubbel and Tripel to refer to generic strong beers. The way to make sure you are getting the real thing is to look for the name of the Monastary on the bottle. Our beer tonight is only "bewed in the Trappist style" hence the term "Belgian style" in the name.

Oh and the Betelgeuse in the name comes from the Giant red star that makes up the right shoulder of the constellation "Orion, the Hunter" which rises in the west in the early fall and travels the southern winter sky. Which co-incidentally, is a great time to try a nice strong ale... such as this one. The constellation also makes an appearance on the label to the upper right of the name.

The colour is light gold with a medium sized head, stark white with tiny bubbles. First sniff gives us fruity citrus with a small hint of clove in the background and light maltiness. First taste gives us apple and pear with a hint of orange. Effervescent and tangy on the finish clove lingers on the pallet as the citrus develpoes. Aeration gives more citric and malic acid re-inforcing the tart sour "Granny Smith" apple flavour. Surprising and delightful this is certainly one of Mill Streets best offerings that I have had.

Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: Exceptional
Cost: Pass
Colour: Exceptional
Beer Style: Exceptional
Re-order: Exceptional
Experience: Exceptional

Final verdict: Exceptional. Actually this is probably the best beer I have tried so far in this blog. Well done Mill Street I'm impressed! The beer holds very true to the Tripel style and the taste profile is spot on.

Beer # 23 Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer.

Tonight's can homage is a wheat beer that is flavoured with orange pekoe and Earl Grey Teas as well as fresh lemon juice. Orange pekoe is not a type or brand of tea, it is actually the grade of tea. It refers to the top three leaves of the tea shrub that are harvested first. They are the most tender and flavourful of all the leaves. Earl Grey Tea has a special relationship with Canada (as well as Capt. Jean Luc Picard) The tea is named after British Prime Minister Sir Charles Grey 2nd Earl of Grey. What does that have to do with Canada you ask? Well his Grandson Albert 4th Earl of Grey was Viceroy to Canada, The ninth appointed Governor General . He was a lifelong patron of the arts and sports, and  as it was tradition in that time to leave a "Legacy" Albert Grey chose to donate a trophy (like one of his predecessors  Lord Stanley...) and donated to Canada the Grey Cup for the Canadian Football League Championship. So what makes Earl Grey tea ? The high quality black tea leaves are infused with essence of bergamot, a small blue flower, giving it a distinct floral and citrus taste.

The beer is a 5% ABV wheat beer in a 500ml can. The colour is light gold with a generous white head with tiny bubbles.The first sniff gives us lemon and tea obviously, and a hint of bergamot. The first sip we get black tea, more bergamot and a short citrus finish. Aeration is all "Lemon Pledge." To me this beer is more of an Ice Tea cooler, than an actual beer. Granted we have be stuffing strange things into beer for tens of thousands of years, and fruit in beer is not unheard of. The lambic beers have been mixed with cherries (Kriek) as well as a multitude of other fruits including banana, lemon, passion fruit, and even pineapple. However, there the fruit serves a purpose to enhance the beer. I know people put lemon wedges on wheat beer and jab limes into Coronas (actually the lime wedge in the Corona was a way of keeping the flies out of your beer and masking any unpleasant tastes associated with the beer going off because of poor refrigeration, and the clear glass bottles causing light damage to the beer. Now it's just a marketing ploy. Be true to beer N.F.L*) Several minutes after tasting the beer the lemon goes away and I get a hint of what the wheat beer actually tastes like, a light and bright fruity aftertaste. Well truth be told this beer was conceived as a patio sipper and since I am huddled on my couch in the dead of winter instead of lounging on a bright people-watching patio may have a bit to do with my judgement. As a patio sipper it's fine you don't want to have to think or analyse your beer in the summer, lemon and wheat slake the thirst.

Overall results: (Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional)

Taste: so-so
Cost: Pass
Colour: Pass
Beer Style: N/A (doesn't really conform to a style, flavoured wheat beer I guess, but the only other example I can think of is Great Lakes Green Tea Ale and it's not exactly the same...)
Re-order: Fail
Experience: so-so

Not a beer I would reach for again I'm sure, but this type of beer isn't really marketed towards me anyway. For anyone who would rather sip alcoholic Lipton's iced tea... we have a winner!

Special Thanks to a Beautiful  Lady who gifted me the Mix-six, told me she was my biggest fan and urged me to keep writing!! And thank you for sticking through the history lesson. Tomorrow we go to Hockley Valley... Stay tuned!

Cheers
CJT

* (no F###ing Lime)