Beer 291: Gamble Mill Tavern...a Hidden Gem

Behold the awesomeness that is the Victorian Secret raspberry wheat ale from the Gamble Mill Tavern. 

I would vote the Gamble Mill one of the central  Pennsylvania's best kept secrets.  I had no idea it was so good. Not only were the beers delicious, the food was quite good as well.  Gary rates his experience here. 

The Victorian Secret is named after Bellefonte, Pennsylvania -- the town where Gamble Mill is located, which is oft referred to as Pennsylvania's Victorian secret. It's brewed with a combination of wheat and barley, fermented with the tavern's house yeast and finished off with pureed raspberries.

I wasn't picking up much in the way of scent -- just a tiny bit of raspberry in the nose. Darn ragweed allergies are always getting in the way.  There were tons of raspberry in the flavor and there was absolutely nothing artificial about it. I hate, hate, hate when non-natural flavors are used to approximate a particular flavor.  If you want it to taste like raspberries, you've got to use real raspberries and the Gamble Mill's brewer totally gets that.  The flavor of fruit was balanced nicely by wheat.  It poured an ever so slightly pink-tinged hazelnut color, which isn't showing up very well in my photo.  Overall I was very impressed by Gamble Mill's offerings and by this one in particular.

Cheers!

Back on Track

Beer #281 Pig Iron India Pale Ale / The Gamble Mill Microbrewery, Bellefonte, PA

Finally, our long national nightmare is over - Penn State won a football game again!  Solid effort on the field, huge effort in the parking lot at the tailgate, and order has again been restored to the universe.  Not happy to see Navy lose, as it's completely impossible to root against those young men.  Onward and upward.

I think what helped PSU get some additional good karma on their side was drinking some fantastic beer on Friday night.  We're very fortunate to have great friends who recently moved to Bellefonte, and we're even more fortunate that they're a block away from The Gamble Mill, a restaurant and brewery I'm now completely in love with.  My first beer of the night was the Pig Iron IPA, named for a type of iron that was produced in the area.  In the glass, you see an bright amber color, and your nose instantly picks up a big grapefruit aroma.  You get the traditional IPA flavors of pine and citrus, with just the right dose of hop bitterness.  This beer is fantastic and would feel right at home among some of the San Diego beers I've sampled this year.  If you love West Coast IPA and their big grapefruit and citrus flavors, you need to find this beer.  Why?  Because I'm making a bold call and moving this beer in to my Top 25 for the year!

Top 25!

I also sampled two other beers on draft, the Big Spring Tripel Belgian Ale (named for the nearby natural springs) and the J. Rose Pale Ale (named for a local famous jockey).  Both delightful, although only the J. Rose sat still long enough to get a picture taken:
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Almost gone....

The microbrewery at Gamble Mill started up in 2010, and their website indicates they're hoping to start adding barrel aging and wild fermentations, which is absolutely music to my ears.  At the moment, Gamble Mill is only distributing in Centre County, so you may need to make a road trip to sample this beer.  It will be worth it, trust me.

Thing to Think About Today:
In the spirit of the Gamble Mill, we need to end this post with some Kenny Rogers.  It's time for The Gambler, folks!  Fitting, as this song always makes me think of Penn State.  One, for the awesome Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant that used to live on North Atherton Street, and two for the fact it was routinely played on repeat in my house, particularly during our five day spring party.  Good times, good times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo