Millys Tavern Belgium Lambic

Brewed by Millys Tavern
Style: Sour Ale
Manchester, New Hampshire USA

12oz bottle- pours a quickly dissipating white head and hazy deep orange color. Aroma is fermented cherry, apple. Taste is fermented cherry, apple, oaky/wine-like, medium malt. Dry finish. Good effervescence. Nice. Occasional.

My Bottom Line:
This almost still Wild Ale concentrates on citrusy fruitiness and bretty funkiness to render approachable drinkability and quirky personality. Wood adds a touch of wisdom and widens the flavor spectrum, but its sleepy mouthfeel depletes lots of the pleasure to be had.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-Absolutely headless, the clear golden orange looks flaccid.
-I’m not sure its stillness was desired.
-Oak is intelligently used here, adding more subtlety and actually interacting with other flavor components.
-The exotic fruitiness is fun, working in conjunction with the mild tartness.

Bottle; thx Mike and Dany!

Growler via brewsandbbq. Thanks so much. Pours orange with no head and a super duper vinegary sour nose. Taste is sweet and slightly tart, with some light citrus notes. Overall tasty sour, very drinkable and far less tart than the nose suggests but still a nice overall feeling. Thanks for the opportunity to try this!

(First bottle) Offered by brewer at brewpub. Slightly clouded golden body with no head to speak of. Nose is simply amazing. What is this? A new Cantillon? Very wild and kind of gueuzish, I could smell that stuff for hours. And that’s what I should have done and stop there. Taste was nowhere near the quality of the nose. Some red apples flavours trying not to sink in a lifeless body with almost no carbonation. The brett so intense on the nose was suddenly missing in action. No noticeable hops. I’ve brought one bottle back home so there’s still hope. I can see what the brewer was attempting (some kind of gueuze-emulation using wild yeasts) and I can only applaud this noble effort but something probably didn’t go according to plan. (3.1/5)

(Second bottle) Still as unconventionnal but a lot less pleasant. The oily body was lifeless. The wild exhilarating aroma wasn’t present. No wild brett or anything. Just some citrus skin flavour with plenty of oak. Was the first bottle a wonderful of wild yeast infection or was there a problem with the second bottle. In any case, the second bottle was boring (2.2/5)

It takes talent to pull this off and Milly’s brewer IS talented. But eventually everybody has to meet their Waterloo. Ironically Milly’s brewer meet his by making one.

12oz bottle at the brewpub, limited 100 bottle release: Clear dark orange with a thin white head, rich toffee and sour notes in the aroma, light bodied with a sour aftertaste.

Growler, courtesy of WeeHeavySD. Thanks, Jon! Pours a dense, oily honey-orange color; mostly headless. Loads of tart balsamic, sharp citrus, and tart cherries in the aroma; funky and slightly rough. Relaxed carbonation. Medium mouthfeel: solid sour presence; balsamic, tart citrus, and overripe fruits; slightly odd but with a well-concentrated core. Medium finish: balsamic and citrus; nicely dry.

lots of samples at the BA BBF 06. One of the highlights of the festival for me. Aroma: Tart and funky, brett, some belgian yeast and fruit notes. Taste is tart and funky brett, oak, light notes of sugar and light fruits, apples, grapes, etc. this was definitely a winner.

From a growler shared at WeeHeavySD’s 2000th rate tasting. Orangeish yellow pour with not much head. Aromas were tart and fruity. Flavors were more tart with some apple and cherry flavors. Pretty good stuff.