Milwaukee Special Reserve Ice
Melanie Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

My friends and I were camping, and we were on a budget, we saw a 30 pack cans of this for $8.99 it was rape, via beverage. The beer looked cheap, it smelled awful, and it tasted worse. It felt like a dead orphan. This was by far the worst beer any of us had ever experienced. It was so bad we decided rather than drinking it, we would use it as target practice. The ammo cost more than the beer. It was the best use of ammo in human history. Forget Gettysburg. I never thought I would shoot unopened beer cans, but it was a joyful catharsis. Our souls were cleansed of that evil brew.

I feel that this is an underrated beer. Yes, is is one of those beers that one purchases when the budget is tight. However, that is what I like about it. When I want something that is highly drinkable and cheap, it is on my radar.

24 ounce can into lager glass, canned on 9/10/2018. Pours crystal clear pale golden yellow color with a 1 finger fairly dense and rocky off white head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of cracker, corn, and white bread dough; with light notes of biscuit, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Some fruity corn aromas, but not overwhelming. Nice and pleasant aromas with pale malt/grains and light earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of cracker, corn, and white bread dough; with light notes of biscuit, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness. Light herbal, floral, woody, grassy, peppery bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of cracker, corn, white bread dough, biscuit, wood, pepper, and herbal/floral/grassy earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Nice robustness and balance of pale malt/grains and light earthy hop flavors; with a nice malt/bitterness balance and no cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Fairly crisp/clean finishing. Very clean on lager flavors, not overly fruity/yeasty. Light-moderate increasing dryness from lingering bitterness and carbonation. Medium-high carbonation and light-medium body; with a very smooth, moderately bready/grainy, and fairly sticky mouthfeel that is good. Thin but not too watery finish. Zero warming alcohol for 5.9%. Overall this is a pretty good iced pale adjunct lager style. All around good robustness and balance of pale malt/grains and light earthy hop flavors; very smooth and fairly crisp/clean/refreshing to drink with the mildly bitter/drying finish. Nice clean pale malt/grain showcase, with solid earthy hop presence/balance for the style. Minimal residual sweetness with crisp dryness. Not too overdone on adjuncts. A nicely enjoyable offering, and well made style example.

It is what it is. A cheap ice beer with a sweet/sour aftertaste.

 

Great bear compared to others in it's similar category. Obviously, you're drinking this to save money and get a nice buzz. Easy to get down compared to other ice type beers (natty , keystone, regular Milwaukee)

 

12 oz undated can poured into a perfect pint glass at fridge temp. The beer is very pale golden straw colored with essentially no head or lacing. The aroma is a bit chemical but faint. Taste is predominantly bitter with no malt presence. Mouthfeel is sharply carbonated with a slight oily/soapy character typical of these beers. Overall, not good, but I've had worse. This can was $.63 as a single, so drink it ice cold from the can if you choose.

Best Bang for the Buck Beer Bever!

 

 

Milwaukee Special Reserve Ice has an initially medium, off-white head (which fizzes away, much more like a soft drink than a beer), a clear, somewhat bubbly, straw appearance, and no lacing left behind. The aroma is of wet straw, and the flavor is of cheap, store-brand grape drink, wet straw, green apple, with even a touch of hop bitterness at the back end. Mouthfeel is light, and Milwaukee Special Reserve Ice finishes semi-dry and unappealing. But, I was able to choke it down.

RJT

Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a pale yellow color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of corn, a bit of malts. Taste is mild malts, some plastics, kind of mild, flavorless yet unoffensive. Feels light in the mouth and overall, considering the low price point, is about what you can expect from this style.

 

 

Save your money folks, this isnt worth the time trouble or hassle for you to drink... go with a 40 ounce of mickeys ice or something because this beer is funky tasting.. I seen it in the store and figured id give it a try, especially for 2.50 a 6 pack. well the only good note is i had lacing in the glass. The head was thick but quickly went away, the smell is grainy and something old..

 

 

 

Saw tall boys of this at the gas station for $0.99 and figured, why not? It's brownish gold with no head to speak of. and has an aroma of cooked vegetables and syrup. Tastes of corn, sugar and pepper. Reminds me a bit of diet ginger ale, only with a slight metallic taste. It is smooth and the flavor isn't offensive, but it isn't exactly something I want to keep drinking. It'd do in a pinch.

 

A - Drank it straight from the can so I have no clue.

S - Rice adjunct, corn, alcohol.

T - Aluminum, strong stale rice adjunct, slight amounts of corn.

M - Medium body with medium carbonation.

O - Overall, For $1.19 a can it tastes exactly how you would expect it.

 

 

 

Poured from a 12oz can into a US tumbler pint glass.

A: The beer is a light yellow color, with a short white head that fades quickly and leaves a decent lace on the glass.

S: The aroma is of adjuncts, grain, light malts and a faint touch of hops.

T: The taste starts bready with flavors of grain and adjuncts. Then a light malt sweetness comes in along with a hops presence that is mild even for the style. The after-taste is slightly sweet.

M: Crisp and a little smooth, light body, medium-to-high carbonation, finish is clean.

D: Not too flavorful, poundable and is not too filling since there's not a lot to the beer, mild kick, I've had worse but there are many other beers even within the style that I would pick first.

$0.50 can from Rudys in La Salle IL.

Pale gold, visible carb, and rapidly fading foam. A nest of bubbles sits atop a flaccid skim.

Smells like musty manila folders, apple juice, and airplane glue.

Flavor is dull and astringent, papery with grain and apple notes. Flabby feel with cereal grain and hard well water notes. Fusels give more than a hint of alcohol. A chore to drink. Chug ice cold or forget it.

WOO COLLEGE!!!!

A: Piss, if piss had bubbles. Clear golden, looks thin/watered down. White head recedes into flat nothingness.

S: Similar to other cheap brews, corn. Also a definite ethyl smell.

T: Woof. Well, it's liquid. Also a light grain taste. Also kind of tastes like someone put a few drops of grape soda and a few drops of vodka into it.

M: It is relatively smooth I guess.

D: It actually isnt that bad considering that it is dirt cheap and is going to get me hammered. Ok it is actually pretty bad, but the best strategy for this one is to just get it over with, drink it as fast as possible, preferably out of a funnel or with a big hole in the side of the can.

CAN you dig it? I pulled off a major trade in the Heinz Field parking lot a couple of weeks ago before watching Pitt lose (by a missed PAT!) to Cincy. I think that I developed a slight head cold during the snowy weather and so my reviews got put on hold until my sinuses cleared. Let the CAN Quest continue!

I came home this afternoon at the end of a looong ramp-up to the holidays and I wanted a beer real bad, so I thought that I would open a real bad beer (at least according to previous reviews and its overall score).

My pour created two fingers' worth of rocky, bubbly bone-white head that exploded with CO2 to the point that it fizzled itself out of existence. Once things settled in for the afternoon, I leaned in for a whiff. Do NOT try this without adult supervision present! Wow! It had a fusel alcohol burn accompanying a fruity sweetness and a cereal graininess. This was like Snapple's antithesis - made from the worst things on Earth. Color was a pale straw-yellow with NE-quality clarity.

Things began to remind me of something else, like Pennsylvania Style Ice http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/782/52434 which was made by the same company! Say, who's zoomin' who here, boys? I truly believe that it was the same beer, but under different labels.

Mouthfeel was hot, with an alcohol burn that lingered well after the swallow. It was really unpleasant as a whole. It does not speak well when I have to nearly choke a beer down. I am simply glad that it remained cold during my review as I might have gagged otherwise.

MKE, PA feels your pain!

No ribbed can for me! I guess I get no added pleasure. (upping a pic soon)

Anyway, I was going to do some work on the car this evening and I know how much smoother things seem to go when you have a cold light beer by your side. I picked up a 30 pack for about $10 bucks.

This is very similar to most macro brew lagers. Light, clear, watery, easy drinking. What makes it diffrerent is a little more "beer taste" than many light beers and a high-alcohol-like sweetness.

Raw beer. Nothing special. You get what you pay for. Great value.

comes in a can with vertical ribbing down the side, for her pleasure, I presume, "select select" it says on top, with MSR interjected between, ensconsced in a gear-like design. Below that " A fresh, Full-bodied Brew", then bold-face MILWAUKEE, followed by slick cursive "Special Reserve", and a bolder "ICE", followed, finally by "Premium Beer{, which, of course, means nothing. Besides the government and recycling alarms, there is no other information about the beer.

So, I will pop it and drink it.

I've never even heard of this beer before, but then, I don't often go prowling for it's like...still, here we are...clear, bare yellow color, slim, soon–gone head...not appealing...

Aroma: corn and little else...sorry, it's a null set that elicits no pleasure...not a whiff...

Taste: blah, blah, blah...wetness is the major caracteristic, followed by faint grain...and that's all...seriously.
Extremely light in body...nothing in the finish, just an avoidance of what's really a beer...that's what's sorely missing...oh, but wait, alcohol is knocking on the door to my medulla øblangata ...and I need a couple more to get seriously drunk and forget the mistakes I made in life, and may have to face tomorrow morning...my new favorite beer...hic! hup! Huuurrrlppp!!!

P.S. I am so glad that they specially reserved the Ice for this beer, otherwise....what calamity would ensue! 

I always try to pick up a local brew, in addition to my craft beers, to support the local guys. The 30-pack of this ice beer I snagged looked to be interesting and it didn't disappoint. When first poured, the head rocketed into a fluffy foam, but quickly died back to a managable level. The first sniff gave off a sweetness that carried over to the taste and the body actually was pretty full! There was a bit of bitterness at the end, in spite of the flavor, but nothing to make me give up on it. This is by no means a top quality entry, but for the price, it's refreshing and friendly enough to keep around for a thirst quencher!

Went to beer store looking for a different "spacer" for Memorial Day weekend cookout. Poured a bright amber color with puffy white head. Smell was not impressive with sweet overtones. Taste was not enjoyable with excessive sweetness. Left a somewhat disgusting after taste in the mouth. Barely drinkable.

One of the worst beers I've ever had. I just moved into a house with some friends at the U of M and my roomate Adam needed beer but had no money so he bought this sorry excuse for a beer. He has been on a cheap beer binge. I had one and could not and would not finish it if you paid me. If you are looking for a cheap ice beer try Brew City Ice, which is probably made about a block away from the Special Reserve factory

Clear 40 oz. bottle (which was $1.49, and looked very out of place between a bottle of Old Crustacean and Hitachino Weizen). Anyways, this is a qualtiy 40 for the price. Clear gold color, witha big white head on top, after the pour. Smells a little of skunk, must, and corn, but not too bad. Flavors are not particularly appealing, but there is nothing too offensive or horrid. Could be a lot worse, and a pretty good bargain.

A crystal clear golden body is topped by a short but creamy white head. Very fine bubbles rise in steady streams towards the surface, lending support to the fading head. It drops shortly to a decent collar and whispy surface covering; but also leaves some spotty lace throughout the glass. The nose displays sweet malt with a mild touch of vegetal character and an apple-like fruitiness. The body is surprisingly full, and quite creamy and smooth in the mouth. The flavor delivers the sweet malt and fruit that the nose promised, without defect. It's almost candyish in a way! There's certainly no hop flavor present; and the bitterness is at, or just below, threshold - but somehow it works! It finishes sweet with a residual fruity malt that dissipates shortly. I don't imagine that this is a very strong beer, but whatever alcohol is present is not noticeable. And as odd as it may sound, it's got a good drinkability - it's like drinking a gently fruity malt soda! Possibly good for SuperBowl parties... pairs well with extra hot Buffalo wings!