Mert's Milk

Before I get started, I must say this post is over a beer that you will not find in stores anywhere. It's a 100% pure, Ozark made Homebrew brewed by a rookie brew-master. He calls his beer "Mert's Milk", and it is very good.

Silver Batch

His story began when he stumbled upon an unused homebrew kit relatively inexpensive. It came with a Pale Ale kit of unknown age or origin, but he was going to brew it anyways as it was a good place to start. While cooking everything up, he accidentally overcooked the malt extract which created a much darker Pale Ale than intended and gave it a more caramelized flavor. This first batch, which I'll call his "Silver Batch" because of the silver bottle caps, had a great malt flavor that was heavy yet smooth.

Orange Batch

His second batch was supposed to be a Maple Beer, but the maple flavor was so mild, it was hard to distinguish it. This second batch, the "Orange Batch", was slightly hoppier than the first and more of a lighter gold color. This brew was bottle conditioned with a little extra yeast. By the time I finished my last bottle, you could tell the yeast were still working away as it kept getting a little more stout. As for the maple, it was there. Once the beer began to warm up a little, the hint of maple came out. This second brew also produced a massive head and I had a hard time keeping it from overflowing.

His third and fourth batches are going to be a special holiday blend in time for Christmas followed by a California Pale Ale that he will be triple hopping around New Years. I can't wait.

My hat is off to Mert's Milk. I've loved the first two batches and look forward to future ones (and I'm not just saying that because I know you'll read this...) I only hope some day I'll be able to brew my own beers right along with you.

Before I sign off, I'd like to give a quick Mead update. I took a taste of my plain mead a while ago. It was only about a month or so since I started it, so it was still quite a bit cloudy. After the first swig, well, let's just hope another month of fermenting does the trick...