Victory Milltown Mild

This beer is a very interesting beer, in the fact that is actually a small beer, and not really a traditional mild per say. So what exactly is a small beer? It isn’t really a style, but a very old brewing practice, where brewers would actually get two beers out of one mash. When a brewery would do a strong beer, such as an old ale/barleywine with a high gravity wort, they would actually sparge again, and use the second runnings of the mash, to make what was called a small beer. Small beers of course, would be lighter in color, alcohol, and flavor, making them perfect session or drinking beers. They were sold for much cheaper than the old ale, and were the drink of the common man who didn’t have all that much money for beer at the time. Victory’s Milltown Mild is a small beer in that sense, as it is brewed from the second runnings of their world class barleywine Old Horizontal. Milltown Mild comes in at a very modest 3.3% abv, and is served cask conditioned, pulled from a beer engine at the brewery. Milltown Mild pours to a beautiful, bright, deep golden color with a thick and creamy white head, from the sparkler used on the swan of the beer engine, and a very soft carbonation. The nose on this beer is very nice, with aromas of light sweet malty aromas, and hints of grassy hop aroma. The palate is very soft and lean, with some good biscuity/toasty malt flavors, and just a slight touch of ripe fruit. Milltown Mild finishes slightly malty/fruity, and refreshing as well. I could drink a lot of this beer!

On cask at brewpub. Tannish color with not even a hint of head. I expected the malt to make at least an appearance, but sadly it does not. Slightly biscuity aroma and taste. Not my favorite Victory offering.

On cask at brewpub. Pours a deep orange body with barely any head. Not much going on here in aroma or flavor. A little malt and maybe some bread. Nothing exciting here.

"Cask only" @ Victory. The only reason I got this was because it was supposed to be cask conditioned. It was crystal clear brown in appearance and flat. It had almost no nose and the flavor was very wimpy, boring, and watery. When I come to Victory it would be nice to get a good cask conditioned brew while there. They could drop this crap by me but they know what sells I guess. Very disapointing!

Cask at Victory. Deep copper color and clear with slight head and good lacing. Aroma is nutty and malty. Flavor is sweet with a slight roasted hint and some nuttiness to finish it off. Extremely smooth mouthfeel and easy to drink.