Brooklyn Brewery Monster Ale Barleywine Style Ale

Hello beer lovers and welcome to another edition of the NorCal Beer Blog's brew review.

Tonight’s featured beer is Brooklyn Brewery Monster Ale Barleywine Style Ale. Bottled in 2006 I was very fortunate to get this bottle from a friend of mine.

From the Brooklyn Brewery website: “Brooklyn Monster Ale is a classic barley wine, a style of ale originally brewed by the butlers to the English and American aristocracy. It is brewed from three mashes of heirloom British malt and spiced with aromatic American Willamette, Cascade and Fuggle hops. After four months of aging, it has a magnificent burnished copper color, an aroma redolent of sherry, citrusy hops and fruit, a soft, warming, complex palate, a spiritous finish, and a strength of 10.3%. It is vivacious when young, but will age gracefully for many years, becoming more complex over time.”

Let’s get started!

Appearance: Pours a reddish brown with the thinnest off-white head and great lacing.

Aroma: Caramel, pine, citrus, brown sugar, dark fruits, toffee and toasted bread.

Taste: Sweet caramel malts, citrus and pine hops, toffee, raisins, toasted biscuit malts and brown sugar.

Overall: Brooklyn Brewery Monster Ale Barleywine Style Ale is incredible.  Balanced, smooth, complex, and dangerous at 10.1% ABV, I WISH this beer wasn’t retired.  I feel very fortunate to have gotten the chance to try this 2006 vintage. I almost felt guilty drinking it…almost…

Cheers!

Mark Harvey

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