What a better time to review this than after the release of The Mandalorian season two trailer. ….What…. you haven’t seen it yet? How can you be reading this if you haven’t seen the trailer for the second season of Mandalorian yet? Go here now… quickly! And then come back and check out this review. I mean, seriously, read my review… but also seriously… check that trailer out and tell me you aren’t hyped and pumped for season two. The Mandalorian Season Two Trailer.

This is my second Mandalorian themed beer review. Certainly not going to be my last I’m sure given the popularity of the show, and how craft breweries love using pop cultural references for can labels and beer names. You can read my review for This is The Way by Broken Goblet here. As many readers of the blog will have taken note by now, I am a big Star Wars fan, so any Star Wars themed beers I can find, I try my best to get my hands on them. Sometimes this is good… the beers are good …. sometimes this is bad… and the beers were bad and they used the name / label / reference as a means to sell their otherwise less than stellar beer. But thats a risk you have to take when trying beers by beer name / label rather than brewing company recognition or reviews or whatever. Its a risk I know going in and usually willing to take.

You can check out a few my other Star Wars (and one Space Balls) related beer reviews:

• May The Fourth Be With You
• This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For
• Moon of Vega

I was able to acquire this as a crowler in a trade. (Thats the only way RAR released this beer, was in crowler form, unlike their other Out of Order series of beers which they’ve done in 4pks – to the best of my knowledge). The second hand market on this beer was getting a bit ridiculous (had a guy offer to sell it to me for 48$ plus I pay the shipping for him to send it from VA to PA), so I was happy to find a decent trader on it.

Time to break down this crazy looking beer.

Beer: Out of Order: Blue Milk
Brewery: RAR Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Made in collaboration with Brad at Cold Stream Studios and Main Street Gallery, “Blue Milk” is made with milk from a Bantha, but also tastes like a blue raspberry float.

At least it’s from a Bantha and not that creature Luke drank from in The Last Jedi…

Apparently its called a Thala… and Luke finds it delicious….

Personally, I’d stick with the blue milk he had in A New Hope….

OR…. better yet…. I’d just try this beer here from RAR Brewing…. (Ahh…. such a good segue huh?)

Let’s start with the appearance… this is a beautiful light creamy looking blue. Like a hazy cloudy sunny day blue. Or if you had fruit loops or some other fruity sugary cereal and ate all the cereal, this is what your milk would look like afterwards. It has a creamy, almost like melted ice cream look and texture to it.

Aroma is interesting, it has a vanilla heavy smell, but you get a raspberry and berry heavy nose too. Kind of has the smell of melted soft serve ice cream that used the raspberry flavoring.

The texture, consistency, and overall look follows suit. It has the texture, a light grittyness, but still overall smooth of a drink still, of melted ice cream. Everything about this just has the appearance of melted ice cream, which I think is the overall attempt of it. Its like many of the sour fruited slushee like beers, but a bit smoother, more silkier, but still has some of that gritty texture to it. This has the taste of those yogurt drops, I remember my daughters loved them when they were babies, their small, almost Hershey kiss shaped drops of yogurt, smooth, fruited, and easy to digest for babies. This is similar in flavor to a raspberry one of those. If you had a berry, fruity bowl of raspberry (primarily raspberry) fruited flavored cereal, this is the milk from after you ate the cereal. This isn’t quite as powerful raspberry, its subdued, possibly the result of being “blue raspberry” versus whatever regular raspberries are called I guess. Not quite sure what the differences are between the two (if there is such a thing). This reminds me of sitting down to watch Saturday morning cartoons and draining the bowl of milk afterwards (though for me it was that bad lactaid free milk). Memberries and nostalgia galore here with this beer! I do like this beer overall. I think some might be put off by the color, the texture, even possibly the scent, and appearance, but overall I like it, and I enjoyed it. I think 48$+ is ridiculous for it, and the second hand market on this is driven by the label and logo (which I have noticed now, that some crowlers are coming without the label due to them running out). I think its worth the attempt to find and try if you are able to, especially if you are able to cheaply, but I wouldn’t go crazy searching for it at some of those second market prices.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.37 (as of 9.16.20).

I have had a few other Out of Order (OOO or OoO or OO) variants from RAR Brewing. I like the series and I do like RAR Brewing overall. I previously here for the blog reviewed Jon Voight’s Car, make sure to check that out.

As always please like, subscribe, follow, and share. Love hearing from you guys the readers in the comments section as well. So be sure to let me know what your thoughts are on the beer, the label, the brewery, Star Wars in general, or anything else on your mind’s.

Thanks for reading and cheers!

-B. Kline

This was originally posted to Let Us Drink Beer, a blog I (B. Kline) guest write for (about once a month). You can view the original article here: Let Us Drink Beer Blog: Beer Review: Esmeralda (Ministry of Brewing). I highly recommend checking out their blog. They are Georgia and Atlanta based and have a lot of great articles, especially if you are visiting that area of the country.

Onto the review:

Hello everyone, its me, B. Kline, from The Beer Thrillers back with another post (my usually monthly post). I took my daughter to the Baltimore Aquarium and we stopped at the Ministry of Brewing in Baltimore. A gorgeous former Cathedral turned brewery, that I had been seeing stuff about on Facebook and really wanted to check out. So I was originally going to do my brewery review for my post… but, felt it would be a bit too negative to do as a guest blog spot, so I’m doing a review of one of their beers instead. I did do a review of the brewery for my blog, which you can check out here: Brewery Review: Ministry of Brewing. Spoiler: I didn’t hate the place or the beer; just the service. But, please check out the review either way, after you’re done checking out the beer review here.

But let’s not dwell on the negatives and instead talk about the positives, like this delicious beer. So that’s why I decided to use this for my monthly guest blog spot on Let Us Drink Beer.

Beer: Esmeralda
Brewery: Ministry of Brewing
Style: Sour – Berliner Weisse
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Refreshingly tart wheat ale.

They had a few variants of this through the usage of syrups; typical for Berliner Weisse’s. Some breweries will have the plain tap, and then add a cherry, or raspberry, or strawberry syrup to give it a different, more fruity flavor. I had just the original plain.

Appearance is exactly what you expect and what you are looking for in a berliner weisse. Wheat looking, ‘beer looking’ golden hued yellowish beer. A nice white thin lined foam to the head, so you know its well carbonated. Its got a good crisp, clean look that you want in a nice cold refreshing beer.

Aroma is a nice, ‘tart’ ‘funky’ smell. Pretty much once again spot-on or right on target for what berliner weisse’s and other similar style (farmhouse ales, saisons, etc.) should be. It has that distinct ‘sour’ smell, with the notes of wheat, hint of spices, and just a nice smell. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing unpleasant, nothing wrong.

Flavor is refreshing, tart, crisp, relaxed, and not too ‘lethal’ at 5%. They are definitely not lying, this is a refreshing, tart wheat ale. It’s not crazy puckering tart, but there is a nice, clean, crisp, refreshing, tartness to this that provides a nice flavor. Would be interesting to try this with the different syrups to see how much change there is and how much flavor those various syrups add to it. 5% is a great middle-road ABV that lets you enjoy several of these without it becoming overwhelming or too much; that refreshing area where you can have a few and still drive home safely, enjoying them out in the sun at a picnic or baseball game. I believe they had a cherry, strawberry, lime, and blue raspberry for their flavors (though I might be misremembering). I would be interested in trying the lime and blue raspberry (not a huge fan of cherry or strawberry).

I wanted to try several other beers from them, or at least one more, while there, and take another home with a growler, but unfortunately due to them not paying me attention even after being there over an hour, and having strict rules (due to COVID) about getting up, I wasn’t able to get anymore. But… I did really enjoy this beer. Hopefully their other beers are just as good. Maybe some day I’ll get back down to Baltimore and try them out.

As for this, Esmeralda is completely on point, hitting all of its marks. Nothing completely amazing, but does exactly what you want the beer to do, and thats far more than can be said about a lot of beers.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.62 (as of 8.20.20)

Please check out my full review of The Ministry of Brewing. And as always everyone, thanks for reading, and you can check out my blog – The Beer Thrillers – where Let Us Drink Beer also guest blogs and posts. So be sure to give us both some reads and shares and likes and follows, etc. We greatly appreciate it!

Cheers!

-The Beer Thrillers
-B. Kline