Milestone - Olde Home Wrecker
At best an ‘Interesting’ beer, at worst an undrinkable beer.
“Full bodied winter ale, packed full of flavour with a nutty finish.” That’s everything it says on the box with reference to this ale. Milestone clearly prefer brevity when describing their products. On the other hand Milestone include a sheet of A4 with the most long winded list of brewing instructions I’ve ever seen included with any kit. As far as I can tell, this is the same instructions shipped with all Milestone kits. Particular emphasis is given to the importance of hygiene. I'm not sure why Milestone make such a song and dance about sanitisation compared with other producers but these guys would practically have you wear a full white coverall suit, hairnet and face mask.
Following a not so great experience with Crusader but not wanting to be unfair to Milestone, I thought I’d give their Olde Home Wrecker a chance. This kit produced a very dark wort which had an exceedingly rich and sweet aroma. It immediately brought to mind liquorish and molasses which I don’t normaly associate with ale. Such an unusual heavy smell did not fill me with positivity.
Olde Home Wrecker took the longest fermentation time of any brew I’ve made, a whopping three weeks. Until I came to brew this, the record here for the most annoyingly slow fermentation was held by Milestone Crusader. Why both these Milestone kits struggled so much with fermentation remains a mystery. I know it isn’t the fault of environmental conditions in this house, or some other mistake I've made. The problems I’ve had with these two kits put me off bothering with Milestone in future.
Verdict.
Upon inspection the beer is a pleasant red/brown colour with a strong bubbly head. It is a darker ale so you need to look quite hard to clearly see your fingers on the other side of the glass. Because the wort had been so dark I was expecting an even darker ale but that hasn’t been the case. Olde Home Wrecker has an almost overpowering liquorish aroma and flavour, followed by what I can only describe as a citrusy undertone. Overall a sweeter tasting brew than most but I really don’t feel good about this citrus flavour.
I served tasting glasses to my wife and another couple of friends - their reactions were mostly negative. Only one of my friends, Gary, had anything positive to say. He found some attractive characteristics to Olde Home Wrecker but was firm that it was not a beer for quaffing. He compared it with a heavy tasting Dutch beer, similar to something one might be served at a specialist pub in Soho we have visited called De Hems. We agreed that this beer would be best served in a smaller glass with a stem, definitely not a pint! Lee and my other pal Ian recoiled at the flavour of Olde Home Wrecker, they were not at all complimentary.
I hate to say but our experience of Olde Home Wrecker has been a failure. I am sure there are those who might find pleasure in this ale but not us. In the end I poured the final two thirds of this barrel over our compost.