Turning Point: Milk Foley (England: Flavoured Pale Ale: 6.3% ABV)
Visual: Slightly cloudy apricot skin coloured body, that has some red hues from certain angles. Very large white, mounded head. Moderate amount of small bubbled carbonation to the body.
Nose: Strawberry. Light peppermint. Flour on white baps. Vanilla yogurt. Orange skin. Slight hop prickle but low bitterness. Light menthol.
Body: Strawberries. Cream. Crushed dry hops. Prickly. Slight charring. Nettles. Slightly dry. Gunpowder tea.
Finish: Dry bitterness. Slight charring to black pepper. Greenery. Gunpowder tea.
Conclusion: Have I done notes on a milkshake IPA before? Surely I must have? These things were huge and popular for a whole minute or so a while back, so I must have done notes on at least one, as much as I generally avoid them. Ok this is technically described as a pale ale rather than an IPA, but with the abv and the ingredients, it is the same darn thing.
So, if I am not a fan, why am I doing these notes? Well I am a huge Mick Foley fan so was dragged in by a bunch of references to him here, and so we have this aaaaand … eh, milkshake IPAs are still fairly shit.
The aroma is pleasant. Strawberry there in an artificial creamy way, slight menthol, and a touch of hops, but for the most part just that strawberry. Ok, it is doing the job so far.
When you start drinking the beer you get that slightly artificial strawberry again, but now against a kind of acrid basic bitterness and a charred hop character. It feels like dried crushed hops were dropped into it just before you started sipping, so you get a rough feel even though there is no sediment visible. Maybe this is what people come to milkshake pales for, but for me it just feels unfortunate artificial meets ill expressed hops.
The hops really don’t add anything useful here, just kind of greenery notes along with the acrid touch and bitterness. It doesn’t feel like it is adding anything positive you would see in a pale ale – either by itself or as a compliment for the artificial tasting strawberry and lactose
Maybe milkshake IPAs/pales are just not for me, so I may not be the best to judge this but the strawberry notes are basic, but ok – the hops feel harsh and don’t enhance the experience. No subtle hop flavours rounding it out, just bitter harsh notes with no class.
Definitely not for me.
Background: Confession time, I got this mainly because it is laden in Mick Foley references, and as a huge fan of that Hardcore Legend I was tempted to give it a try. From the pun name, to the fact the can is coloured like the flannel jacket he used to wear, to a reference to “All Mankind” in the text (one of his wrestling personas being Mankind), and the name of Cactus Jack, another persona of his, written on the base of the can, they wanted to make sure you got that it was not an accident – this is a Mick Foley homage beer. I’d tried this a while back and wasn’t too impressed due to the intrusive more harsh bitter notes, but saw it on sale in Sainsbury‘s for a large discount so thought I would give it another go. This was canned end March, so I thought maybe that would have given it some time to mellow. It is listed as a strawberry and cream pale ale and is made with lactose, oats, wheat, strawberry and vanilla. Apparently this was first brewed in collaboration with BrewYork but they aren’t mentioned on the can so I presume this is now solo brewed. After my listening to Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes more recent albums to match recent beers I went back to their first album “Blossom” for this one. Such a massive relentless album. I still love it.
