Motor City Brewing Ghettoblaster
Motor City Brewing Works

4.06/5  rDev +19.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

This is my first English mild so I can't tell you how it stacks up to other beers of this style. However generally speaking I am a huge fan of English style ales and this one does not disappoint. To me, it tastes like a lighter version of an English brown ale. I really like having a lower abv option like this for the warm weather.

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3/5  rDev -11.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Nutty medium bodied flavor with a clean quenching mouthfeel and a clean finish. Tastes more like a bock than a mild, which makes it really strange tasting.

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2.73/5  rDev -19.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75

Appearance: Smaller hazy head, reminds me a lot of a melted Coke Slurpee.

Aroma: Malty, Bready, Slightly Salty aroma.

Taste: Extremely salty, undertones of bread or biscuits. bitter, but not hoppy.

Mouthfeel: low bodied, almost watery. small about of carbonation (may have been this bottle).

Overall: I don't know if it is just me or not but it seems too salty for my taste, If you like bready beers then this is a good choice for you, if you like Beers that are hoppy or fuller bodied steer clear.

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2.84/5  rDev -16.2%
look: 3.75 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.75

I need something to finish my peanuts at the hockey game. It was local in Detroit so I gave it a shot. A bit boring. Brown color with a decent head and good lacing. Subdued smell with a slightly sweet bready taste. It was ok.

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3.52/5  rDev +3.8%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

Just call this biscuit beer or bread in a bottle as it's big on bread flavor and yeast to the nose. Hardly and hop flavor that I could pick up. I prefer my beers with bold or robust flavors and smells. It's just too mild for my taste but I get why it might be popular with other beer drinkers.

Hugely popular in the D but it's lost on me.

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3.6/5  rDev +6.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.25

Not exciting, but solid enough. No nose to speak of, very muddy-puddle appearance, but nice toasty-biscuit taste, little hay note, good balance of those elements with dry-leaning brown sugars, and overall within the boundaries of the style. It lacks depth, and hasn't much in the way of innovation or explosion; all the same, in no way could I call it bad.

At 7:00am in DTW after a red-eye, "not bad" and mildly local equates to pretty good.

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3.79/5  rDev +11.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

12 FL. OZ. bottle
Served in a nonic pint glass

This beer pours burnt orange with amber highlights. It is capped with two inches of beige head that leaves some decent lacing.

The smell is of toast, toffee, and caramel.

It starts out with toffee and caramel flavors. Then comes toasted malt with an almost but not quite burnt toast flavor.

Medium mouthfeel

This is a flavorful mild. It is quaffable and doesn't bore the palate.

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3.68/5  rDev +8.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

On draft, served in pint glass. Clear dark copper color, thin head that fades. Biscuit malty aroma, earthy. Similar taste. Thin to medium body, average carbonation

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3.43/5  rDev +1.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has an iced tea color with a 1/2 inch head that disappeared quickly. Smell is of malts, bready. Taste is malts, nutty, grains, a touch of caramel. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is a pretty good beer.

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3.32/5  rDev -2.1%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5

On tap, poured into a shaker. The aromas are a mellow and muted with tones of toffee, grains and biscuits, with undertones of chocolate and nuts. The beer is a rich, hazy, dark caramel color with a soapy, gelatin tan head that only retains a light amount and leave a touch of lace. The taste is a medium bittersweet, that’s not quite balanced. It’s a slick, oily beer with a fuzzy, zippy carbonationa and a medium light body with flavors of grain and dry caramel malt that finishes with a zip of spice and tastes of biscuit and minerals. It leaves an aftertaste of light grain, roasted nuts, and bitter wax

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3.42/5  rDev +0.9%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

12 oz. bottle picked up as a single in Mackinaw City; there is some sort of code or date stamped on the bottle, but it is sort of illegible (bottled in Feb 2014 is my best guess). Served slightly chilled.

Pours a cloudy copper-orange colour, topped with one finger of loose, off-white froth that quickly fades away. A bubbly collar and film are the only remnants. The aroma is mild and malty; caramel, brown sugar, toasted nuts, roasted grains and biscuity sweetness come through nicely, with a slightly fruity, earthy ale yeast vibe.

Very straightforward, approachable flavour. Toffee, bready malts and some nutty, toasted notes are the first things I pick out, followed by a light hint of plummy fruitiness. Mildly roasty toward the finish, with an earthy, very slight bitterness that sews things up nicely. Light-bodied, with moderate carbonation that gives this brew a somewhat crisp, lively mouthfeel for the style. Very easy to drink, and its balanced nature should make this one a relative crowd-pleaser, as far as English-style session ales go.

Final Grade: 3.42, a B-. Ghettoblaster is a passable English-style dark ale, but I'll add an asterisk to that because I have a feeling this bottle is getting a little old. This is the sort of beer that both craft beer fans and those who have never tried anything fancier than Guinness Draught should be able to enjoy, or at least tolerate. I will need to try this on tap some time to see if that adjusts my perspective at all, but for now I'd say this one is worth a look.

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3.32/5  rDev -2.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25

Appearance: No "smoke" on opening. Brown. Cloudy. 1/8" off-white head, fades quickly. Proper for style, but sediment cloudiness is not appropriate. Maybe my fault for disturbing sediment on the pour.[When you don't pour in the yeast, is a clear very dark amber/light brown. Little head, but what it has it retains right to the bottom. Little lacing. Modest carb.].

Aroma: Funky, malty, sour, yeasty, "dirty" smell. Needs to warm up. Sour milk. After it warms: slightly sweet, slightly roasty, malty, slightly sour. [Revisited 9-4-15: still really funky! Like an earthy, moldy, sweet caramel; toasty malt. Very stereotypical "English" hop. I can't tell whether I love it or hate it.]

Taste: Clean, slightly tart. Little flavor; needs to warm up. Improves as it warms. Slightly sour, ever so slightly roasty, bitter, earthy finish. Clean finish. Is this biscuity? [Enjoyed warm, this is a gem. Really malty, estery, fruity flavors mix together with toasted malt, and a really pleasant, albeit mild, bitterness. Really the most flavorful beer at 4.2% I've ever had.]

Mouthfeel: Highly effervescent. Light [to medium].

Overall: Don't bother with this until it's almost room temperature. Nice, but I have had other English Ales I would buy first. [Still true, although this one was WAY better than the last bottle I had. This has a real earthy complexity, perhaps coming from the yeast strain used. The earthy/funky/moldy thing is getting to me; it smells like a basement.]

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3.3/5  rDev -2.7%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Appearance from the bottle is a very dark amber , with a white biscuity head

Smell - not getting much hops , smells like bread crust , biscuits, a hint of sweetness after it warmed in my snifter, first poured smell was nonexistent and cold had more of a yeast smell.

Taste. Not sure what to expect from this style to be honest. it has A slight taste of that from a Bock ,but more biscuit and more of bread type flavor profile Some earthiness flavor similar to a fresh uncooked mushroom. Something going on in the finish like a soap and slight pepper bite from the yeast?

Mouth feel , thin light , refreshing, but that soap flavor in the end sticks around to long for my liking

Overall not bad, I received it for free and have seen it on shelves recently and have been wanting to try it for some time. After tasting it now I would recommend trying it once, I would not buy this though after this review. Something about that flavor on the end of the taste just is not to my liking, It reminds me of drinking Malt Licky sort of ?

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4.25/5  rDev +25.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4.5

Received as an extra in a trade and poured into my Duvel tulip.

A - Pours a nice crystal clear darker brown/copper hue with a thin one finger head that fades to leave a light quarter inch blanket along with light side lacing.

S - Aromas of darker malts, toast, biscuits, faint caramel, lightly fruity.

T - Taste is bready, light the crust of the bread. Faint caramel, lightly bitter. VERY english. Alcohol is nonexistent.

M - Mouthfeel is on the thinner side, which I guess is to be expected.

O - Overall, I was floored by this beer. I was expecting a drain pour due to the rAvg but yeah, this is a VERY good representation of what this style SHOULD be. Well done.

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3.68/5  rDev +8.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

12 ounce bottle into pint glass, bottles on 9/11/2013. Gusher upon opening, very high carbonation. Pours lightly hazy/cloudy orange amber color with a 2 finger fairly dense and rocky off white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lasts. Nice dense soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a ton of streaming carbonation retaining the head. Aromas of toast, brown bread, light caramel, golden raisin, pear, apple, light nuttiness, herbal, floral, and yeast earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with well balanced bready malt, earthy hop, and fruity yeast notes; with solid strength. Taste of toast, brown bread, light caramel, golden raisin, pear, apple, light nuttiness, herbal, floral, and yeast earthiness. Minimal bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of caramel, toast, brown bread, light nuttiness, plum, pear, apple, herbal, floral, and yeast earthiness on the finish for a short bit. Nice balance of bready malt, fruity yeast, and earthy hop flavors; with solid robustness and zero cloying flavors after the finish. I let the carbonation dissipate in the glass. Medium carbonation and light-medium bodied; with a very smooth, crisp, and lightly bready mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is well hidden with no warming present after the finish as expected of 4.2%. Overall this is a nice mild ale. Well balanced bready malt, earthy hop, and fruity yeast flavors with solid robustness; and very smooth and crisp to drink. A nicely enjoyable offering.

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4.43/5  rDev +30.7%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

poured into a standard pint glass...

a: light amber, nice clarity. light foam.

s: fruity, biscuit, toast, light caramel, no hop aroma.

t: bread crust, light toast. medium bitter in english terms. very light alcohol.

m: light carbonation. bitter, dry finish.

o: this beer is a fantastic example of what an english mild should be. i think most of the low marks come from people expecting an american amber style. this beer nails the mild style, if anything might be a little too big. if you are expecting an american amber or an esb style beer then you will be highly disappointed. this historic style is what helped keep man alive when you couldn't drink the water. it brings a huge smile to my face when i see breweries give homage to such styles instead of trying to pack another 100 ibu's into the next hop bomb. well done!

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3.53/5  rDev +4.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.75

We pour a brew of rich amber honey coloring into our Great Lakes pint glasses. It holds a one and a half finger tall head of tan, soapy bubbles, showing okay retention. Spots of lacing are left as this goes, but these are minimal. No haze or sediment is noted, and carbonation appears to be moderately active. The aroma gives notes of rich roasted malts, light chocolate and hazelnut essence, mocha coffee bean fumes, raw honey, oat grit and dust, soft pseudo-woodiness, damp paper towels, tin foil, and chalky yeasted breadiness. Our first impression is that the flavoring is quite simple, but nicely robust and inclusive roast and toast characteristic of the style. As we sip, the flavoring opens with wheat, roasty coffee and chocolate malts, dried dog food nibbles, carrot and celery vegetals, general yeastiness, tins and aluminums, lemony sours, and Tootsie pop sugars. The middle peaks with milk chocolate brownie sugars, lactic and vinegar sours, dirty English brown malts, distant grassy hops, oily caramel sugars, faint molasses bite, phenolic plastics, raw oat, and cereal grain. The end washes through with a definitive cleansing bowl of grassy hop bite, thin caramel and burnt coffee maltiness, basement mustiness, rich English brown malt sours, rubbers and unworked leathers, toffee sugars, and synthetic vanilla and hazelnut coffee extracts. The aftertaste breathes of cheap and stale chocolate cake icing, bittering roast of coffee malts, biting grassy and herbal hop rumbles, cheddar cheese mustiness, continued tin, brown bread grit, cold plum pudding, and beet vegetals. The body is lightly medium, and the carbonation is light to medium. Each sip gives thin cream, froth, slurp, smack, or glug, but coats the mouth fully, and gives it a bit of a wandering pucker. The palate is left lightly dried, with mild astringency to boot. The abv is appropriate, and the beer drinks decently enough.

Overall, the best thing about this beverage is its ease of drinkability, in line with its stylistic guidelines. It is certainly not the most exciting beer when it comes to flavor or aroma, as it has that dirty, dog food type of bite. Regardless, there is enough flavor and presentation to present the drinker with at least a unique style of beer. It goes down without complaint, and is nice for someone looking for an “in between” sipper that isn’t too dark, but isn’t too light. As always we’re excited to try a local brewery for the first time, and again, are super happy that this is a bizarre, underrepresented style. This won’t become a fridge favorite for us, but we will certainly look for other beers of this producer to see what they’ve got to round out their arsenal.

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2.97/5  rDev -12.4%
look: 2.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75

This interestingly named beer looks the part of a traditional dark mild, sort of a reddish-brown that only achieves complete clarity when held to the light, but only because of its dark color. The head is short-lived and spritzy, dying down before it has a chance to form more than a small island that remains. It manages sub-par spotting.
It smells better than I might think looking at it. Esters are spicy and fruity foremost with the faintest hint of leaf along with a little bit of earth and some creamier sweetness, with a metallic note underlying.
The taste underwhelms, as it just seems to go flat and lose much of what the nose received. It ends up being flat grains with slight spicing and a watery breadiness. It's disappointing after a nice smell. Leaf sneaks weakly into the finish, and the metallic note flashes in and out.
The feel is also flat. There's a barely-medium body, but both smoothness and crispness are fairly weak. It's not that there isn't crispness, but it's barely holding on the whole way through. This is where either something's wrong or the brewer determined that lighter body meant thin and watery. It's not dead, but it's dying.

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3.77/5  rDev +11.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75

I got a bottle of Motor City Brewing's Ghettoblaster in their new variety pack for $20 at The Lager Mill. I've seen this beer around many times, but I don't think I've ever had it and it's been a little while since I've had an English Dark Mild Ale, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks nice, it's got a new school tattoo look to it and I like the combination of an engine and a boombox and I think the combination of name and the label makes it fairly eye catching. It poured a nice clear amber color that took on a ruby copper color when held to the light with two fingers worth of off white head that died died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left some pretty nice patchy lacing behind. This is a pretty good looking beer, It looks true to style and I have no complaints.

S- The aroma starts off with a higher amount of medium sweetness followed by a good amount of malts being the first to show up and they impart a nice pale malt, biscuity, toasted malts and light caramel like aromas with a really slight nutty aroma. Up next comes a little bit of fruity yeast followed by some earthy, grassy, and slight herbal hop aromas. This beer had a pretty nice aroma, I have no complaints.

T- The taste seems to be fairly similar to the aroma and it starts off with a lower amount of medium sweetness followed by loads of malts that impart a very grainy, pale malt, toasted malt, light caramel and biscuit like flavors that are a pretty good combination and the nutty aspect seems to be a little stronger than it was in the aroma. Up next comes a very light amount of fruity yeast that is barely noticeable and there's also a doughy flavor in the background. On the finish there's a pretty light amount of hops that impart a pretty light earthy and herbal hop flavor with a pretty low amount of bitterness with a very grainy and toasted malt like aftertaste. This was a pretty nice tasting beer and I think it's fairly true to style.

M- Smooth, clean, a little crisp, slightly creamy, medium bodied with a good amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel was pretty nice and it worked well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a good beer and a good example and a pretty true to style example of an English Dark Mild Ale, I don't have a ton of experience with this style, but this beer tastes pretty much just how I remember a good English Dark Mild Ale tasting and I think Motor City Brewing did a good job at representing the style. This beer had good drinkability, it was smooth, clean, a little crisp, not filling and the taste did a good job of holding my attention, I could see myself drinking more than a few of these, I think it's pretty sessionable and I think this would make for a good beer to pair a meal with. What I like the most about this beer was how true to style it is, it's just a good example of the style and it's just what I look for in an English Dark Mild Ale and I don't see many of those. What I liked the least about this beer was nothing, there nothing that I dislike or would change, it's fine just the way it is. I would buy this beer again and I'll try and I remember to pick up a six pack next time I go on a beer run. I would recommend this beer to just about anyone, I think it's really accessible. All in all I was little impressed with this beer, I was a little let down with their Lager but this beer turned out to be pretty good and I'm starting to think that the English Ales are what this brewery specializes in. I think this beer is on the same level as their Nut Brown Ale. Good job guys, I enjoyed this one, keep up the good work.

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3.16/5  rDev -6.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3 | overall: 3

Appearance: brownish orange color. good clarity, just a slight haze to it. almost no head with just a little bit of an off white lacing.

Smell: toasty pale malts. almost smells like its exclusively maris otter malt. very slight fruitiness.

Taste: toasty to nutty pale malts. just a touch of dark fruitiness.

Mouthfeel: light. just a hinge of a metallic taste.

Overall: to me this style is supposed to be a light beer that is relatively packed with taste. this one isn't nearly as flavorful as the style allows, the flavor isn't too bad just way to weak. In a blind tasting of 4 dark mild (ghettoblaster, new castle cabbie, short's earl or brixom and a homebrew, it placed last.)

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3.45/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

Drawn from the tap into a pint glass.

Appearance: A cloudy brown. There was scant foam that dissipated to almost nothing.

Aroma: A slight sourness with some malt.

Taste: Bready and somewhat sweet with a mild hops presence. The lingering taste is of the hops, but it's not too strong..

Mouthfeel: There's not too much body, but it's OK.

Overall: This beer doesn't seem to be a great example of this style, but it's OK. I wouldn't go out of my way to get this beer, but I'd have another under the right circumstances.

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3.53/5  rDev +4.1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Ghettoblaster is unfiltered and comes with a good amount of sediment in the bottle and yet is relatively clear. Its sun-beaten amber colour is deep but glows to the light. Its head is fine but persistent and sits atop the liquid like a layer of white moss.

Ghettoblaster is "the beer you can hear" but you can definitely smell it too. Leaving the ale unpasteurized has allowed aromatic yeasty esters to thrive; the glass smells like a heaping pile of bruised fruits (banana, red apple, prune) thoroughly doused in anise spice and clove.

The beer is more mild in alcohol content than it is in flavour. As in the bouquet, fruity esters and spicy phenols of all kinds blossom in thanks to a healthy yeast. Granted, pleasant though the bruised banana-and-anise profile is, it's not typical of an English-style Mild Ale.

The beer's biscuity maltiness and subtle toffee backdrop is closer to what I was expecting to find. They're there, but they take backseat to the yeast. Hops aren't entirely out of the mix either; there is an underlying earthiness that lends a short-lived bitterness.

Ghettoblaster turns up the volume on a style that is typically anything but loud. Not surprising given it's made in Detroit Rock City. While I suspect some of this added personality comes accidentally by way of an overactive yeast, I found it an enjoyable lower-strength offering nonetheless. I'll look to try more from Motor City Brewing Works.

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3.45/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.5

Had this on tap at the Park Bar in Detroit. Nice looking, dark-copper color with a decent sized head, although not much lacing was left on the glass at the end. The smell has a lot going on that can be hard to pin-point: earthy, malts, burnt grains, light citrus, a touch of floral hops. The taste, much like the smell would lead on, is slightly sweet with a nice mix of malts and grains. Hops are present, but very faint (maybe overpowered by the grain). Alcohol taste is nearly non-existant, making this a decent session beer. Fairly thin with medium carbonation and a very slight stickiness.

A nice product from Motor City Brewing, Ghettoblaster makes for a very nice session beer when you plan on drinking a bit.

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3.5/5  rDev +3.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

This is so-so. The head was absolutely ridiculous at first. I ended up spooning it out as it would have been like waiting for cupcake frosting to dissipate. Mild tone on the flavor with citrus and a lot of malts are clearly there. Mild? Certainly. Also, a mild example of the style.

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2.41/5  rDev -28.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.25 | overall: 2.5

On draft at the Michigan Brewers' Guild in Ypsi. This pours amber into my little plastic cup. Does not smell like much, maybe a slight malt in the nose--this is certainly mild. Where is the flavor?? I know this is a "mild ale", but there's just nothing here. Tastes like watered down pilsner malts, really no hop influence, and little to no sweetness. The finish is rather dry and boring, and I'm not really sure what I'm drinking here. Not offensive in any way, mainly because there's nothing here.

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