Multiple Beer Review: People’s Imperial Stout, PA Pine Farmhouse Ale, New England IPA #6, Blueberry Gose, Single Hop #11 – Citra Hops (The Millworks)
Following the ‘For the Love of Beer‘ book panel discussion at Mid-Town Scholar, and dropping off my books at my car, I walked the block and a half over to The Millworks brewery. It was getting late but if I was in the area I couldn’t pass up on stopping in at a local brewery, and its been quite a while since I’ve been to the Millworks. I think the last time was sometime last year with D. Scott after we hit up ZeroDay Brewing.
Toting my For the Love of Beer book just got at the panel discussion I took a seat at the bar and ordered myself a flight. With a good and diverse tap list, that rotates regularly, nearly all the beers on the tap were ones I haven’t had yet, but these four particularly caught my eye. And as a bonus for this blog post, I’ll be doing a review of the Single Hop #11 that I had at the Mid-Town Scholar book panel discussion. Though that one will be pretty brief as I was more sipping while they were discussing and not really putting a whole thought process into the beer itself (like its aroma, appearance, etc.).
Starting off with a dark stout after a good two hour session in a bookstore sounds like the perfect idea to me.
Beer: People’s Imperial Stout
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Stout – American Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.8%
IBU: 60
Untappd Write-Up: Dark, smoky flavor with a little hoppy kick. Strong and a good sipping beer.
Appearance is a very dark hue, perhaps not quite Razor Ramon hair dark, but pretty bleak and black. Even for a sample glass it had a nice foamy, creamy head with good lacing, good bubbles.
Smell is malty, some roast notes, some caramel notes, but a lot of malt characteristics on the nose. With a good inhale you can pick up some smokeyness to it, and a subtle note of the hops.
The flavor on this is very nice, its a dark heavy, roasty, malty, lightly smokey stout, its heavy, feels heavy, but there’s also a bittering at the end from the hops that has a bit of last-second punch to it. This makes it for a nice fall bonfire type beer that you can sit around a fire with friends and slowly sip at while staying warm under the blanket(s). This deserves a full pint rather than just a sample but sadly I didn’t have the time to revisit the beer after my flight.
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 10.5.19)
One of a few beers on the taplist that is PA Preferred, meaning the majority of the ingredients come from Pennsylvania farms or dairies or gardens or what have you. (Can be anything from vegetables, to trees, to dairy, to meat, to honey, to anything edible and produced within Pennsylvania.)
The Millworks is very big on “from farm to table” which is very important to helping sustain local communities, local farms, local jobs, as well as helping the environment (less road travel time, less fumes and emissions, less waste, less carbon footprint, etc.). The ingredients tend to be better as well this way, fresher, localized, non processed, and the feel-good factor of helping local community rather than bigwigs from who knows where.
Beer: PA Pine Farmhouse Ale
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 5.1%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)
I really enjoyed this, its a bit of a unique take on the saison and farmhouse ale styles, and it was very delicious. Wish there was an ingredient list or something on Untappd to read up on the process behind it or what all ingredients were Pennsylvania farmed and from where.
Appearance is light in color, typical for saisons and farmhouse ales. Fizzy with a slight bubbled head to it. Light golden, clear, and see-through.
Aroma is straight up pine, as if I was standing under a pine tree in winter. Nose walloping pine smell. Some notes of spices, but not really sure what, the pine smell is so overbearing that the spice notes are very minute and hard to pinpoint, I think some coriander, perhaps a bit of orange peel, but nothing too remarkably distinguishable.
Taste is delicious. Very heavy pine, but with a nice tart / funkness that comes with the typical farm house ale / saison. Not a sour but just a light refreshing tartness that complements the pine more than anything else. With taste I could pick up orange peel though minutely, but it was more apparent in taste than in smell.
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.74 (as of 10.5.19)
New England #6 IPA from the Millworks, one must assume there is a New England #5, a New England #4, a New England #3, etc. To be honest, I don’t know, but Untappd will provide the answer…. and huzzah there is, six different variants, named from New England #1 all the way to New England #6 (though one was a Double New England IPA). They all looked to be relatively the same ABV, though some do have a write-up provided, this one had no description. This is the latest iteration of this process.
Beer: New England #6 IPA
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)
Appearance seems to be a bit mixed on this. I had the gentleman to my left drinking this as well in a pint glass. His had a very turbid almost whitish hue to it, very unfiltered. Mine, in the sample glass has a orange juice colorization, but also very unfiltered. Certainly nothing see through or clear about this, its completely hazy (haze for days) and a little bit of floaters and sediment due to the unfiltered process.
Aroma is a typical New England IPA juicy hop bomb. All kinds of hop notes assaulting you and combining into a juicy melody rather than a bitter one. More citrus forward and nothing earthy about these hop notes.
Taste is spot on for New England IPAs. Very juicy, very dank, very flavorful and very hop flavorful. You get notes of zest, citrus, and the juicier varieties of hops rather than pine, or spruce, or grass, or earthy notes, and nothing bitter. No ending hop kick or anything from this as well.
My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.88 (as of 10.5.19)
Decided to end my night and my flight on a refreshing, tart, delicious blueberry gose. As I’ve said in some previous reviews, like the one for Edmund’s Oast Blueberry Sour – blueberry beers can be hit or miss with me. Luckily this one was a hit.
Beer: Blueberry Gose
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5.4%
IBU: 3
Untappd Write-Up: Tart ale brewed with Blueberries and sea salt.
This is just a pretty beer, like other sours, goses, and berry fruited beers, it has a purplish / violet appearance to it. Under the right lights or with the right lights shining through it it has a sparkly cranberry juice like appearance.
Aroma is very blueberry. Pretty much nothing else distinguishable about the smell or aroma, just pretty much a tart smelling blueberry-ness to it.
Taste is very delicious. Its tart, its refreshing, its enjoyable. Soft and not cloying to the tongue and the blueberry flavor is the right kind of tartness with no funkyness or off flavors or bad sour flavors and notes that some blueberry beers get. Gose is a good style to work with blueberries in as they complement each other nicely. The sea salt in this probably adds to the tartness but its not enough to be noticeable or pick up (easily or by me anyway) on tasting.
My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.72 (as of 10.5.19)
BONUS TRACK: Turn over to side B of this cassette for a bonus track!
Ok, since I had it at the Mid-Town Scholar for the book panel discussion, and then went to Millworks afterwards for a flight, I might as well review it in here, can’t hurt right? So its a five-beer review instead of four. No one’s making you read…. you can easily stop right now if you want…. Or…. you can read on!
This was so new I had to make the Untappd listing for it myself when I checked it in during the book panel discussion (actually did the add-in and check-in just before they started, so I wasn’t multi-tasking, sorry to disappoint).
They’ve been doing a single hop series of IPAs at The Millworks using a variety of different hops in just single-style. The previous one was Huel Mellon (#10), they’ve also done Eukanot, Azacca, Mosaic, Calypso, Amarillo, etc.
Beer: Single Hop #11 – Citra Hops
Brewery: The Millworks
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6%
IBU: (None Listed)
Untappd Write-Up: Single Hop Series. Citra hops.
I’ll give a brief and quick rundown and breakdown of this. Its a New England style IPA and its very tasty. Appearance is hazy and typical for NEIPAs. Its juicy looking, its dank looking, its unfiltered, and its hazy.
Aroma – I took a quick whiff of it as I got to my seat, and its definitely a citra beer (duh obvious, totes!). Meaning its very citrusy, zesty, fruit style hop. No earthy or bitter smells to this.
Taste was very good, pleasant, nice enjoyable tasting NEIPA. I enjoyed it while sipping on it listening to the panel discussion. Nothing off about it, no off flavors, nothing bad, no aftertaste, etc.
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: Well, there’s been a total of 7 check-ins to this, and one is mine, so there’s no global rating yet for this. (As of 10.5.19)
If you are downtown Harrisburg, make sure you stop in and check out The Millworks. Its a beautiful brewery with fantastic beer offerings, and a great food menu that any foodie (or any person who eats) will enjoy. Well worth the visit. Make sure to check out the numerous art galleries and see all the beautiful artwork of local artists as well!
-B. Kline
