Nitro-Charged Chai Porter
Mill Street Brew Pub

Can ...pours a dark mahogany color with a 2 finger creamy-mocha cap...aromas of spice, roasted grains, grassiness...flavor is toasty-malty with a licorice like discernment, lightly sweet but a drying bitter finish..weird but palatable and clean

Pours dark walnut colour with a creamy head. Impressive to look at on the pour, but no follow up lace. Nose like sarasparilla or root beer, or a well-spiced chai. Tasty, but a bit much for a long go. Another sippin' or dessert beer. Not excessively sweet, but the spice wears after a while. Bitter finish from the chocolate character of a porter. Okay as a one off, but really a novelty beer.

Served out of a nitro-charged can. Pours dark brown almost black with a huge thick gooey head. The smell is of cardamom and other Indian spices. The taste however lacks the quality of the nose. I taste spices but it’s a mish-mash nothing really comes through. The mouthfeel is thick and velvetty thanks to the nitro can. Overall not a bad beer but once in a while is enough. Mill Street Cobblestone Stout is the better choice.
March 21 2020

440 mL nitro can from the LCBO; coded A1320 (Jan 13 2020) and served barely chilled.

Pours a dark, foggy brownish-bronze with reddish highlights, topped with an inch of creamy, luxurious, off white-coloured head that slowly seeps away over the next five-plus minutes. A quarter-inch cap remains in place for considerably longer; a decent swath of thick lace has also been left in its wake. Pungently spicy on the nose - the star anise imparts a prominent licorice-like element, though the ginger, cinnamon and cardamom are also easily discerned. It's kind of got a sugary root beer vibe, too, with a hint of lemongrass - this is certainly the most aromatic nitro beer I've ever tried, and in fact I can't think of any others that have even come close.

Its flavour is more mild and balanced than I would've guessed based on the aroma - which is actually kind of a relief, as I was not in the mood for a sloppy spice bomb. Flavours of candied ginger, anise and lemongrass come through at first, with the cinnamon, cardamom and clove following in tow. The black pepper is only noticeable in the aftertaste, providing a light spiciness that works very nicely here, lingering on with hints of cinnamon/cardamom. Light in body, with that airy, fluffy, soft & smooth texture that I associate with nitro-charged offerings; it's got reasonably good drinkability for a heavily spiced offering.

Final Grade: 3.75, eking out a B+. Mill Street's Nitro-Charged Chai Porter is mostly chai, and not so much porter - indeed, the spices seem to be the focus here, so you'd be better off considering this to be a Spiced/Herbed beer rather than a run of the mill porter. I liked this more than I expected to, and I'll likely return to it again, but probably not on a regular basis - I'm just not in the mood for chai spice beer all that often. If you like nitro beers and spiced beers - a rarely brewed combination in my experience - then don't hesitate to give 'er a go.