Brooklyn Monster Ale

Bottle. Pours a burnt reddish orange with beige head. The aroma is mostly fruits along with some pepper and alcohol. The flavor is really bready malt, nuts, and noticeable alcohol. Pretty good beer, but honestly didn’t live up to my expectations.

Bottle. Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Red colour. Moderate malty and hoppy aroma. Nice vinius flavor, but not so complex as other barley wines. Average finbish, a little too alcoholic. Oily palate.

The sixer that I purchased of this said that the alcohol content was 10.1 rather than 10.8. It pours with a nice rather thick head that fingerprints can almost appear in. The color is a sort of dark amber Ok, so it looks fine and fortunately it tastes pretty great too. Drinking this stuff, there would have been no way that I would have known that the beer had that much alcohol in it. Extremely full flavoured with the tastes of hops and a little bit of bitterness coming through. Not sweet, but really full bodied and smooth. Maybe it gets better when it ages, but honestly I cannot wait that long. I’d rather drink it now... and maybe I will.

Noteworthy Barleywine. 2004 bottle sampled. Obviously mellowed with age! Molasses/Toffee malt with touches of hop resin peeking though. Poured a clear amber with an off-white head which deminished far too quickly. Carbonation was very low. Palate was full with a dry finish. Also sampled 2005 bottle which was not quite as good. Obviously, this barleywine is better with a couple of years aging on it.

On tap at Capital Ale House. Hoppy, citrusy, and slightly fruity aroma with a hint of sherry. The smell says its gonna kick your butt! Strong flavors that were present in the smell along with burnt offerings and a warming finish. Rather intense, perhaps it could have aged a bit. Lovely none-the-less, a good barely wine.

Bottle, 2006 vintage. Caramel colored with an off-white head that’s pretty thin. Alcohol is immediately apparent in the aroma - toffee, butter, toasty, vanilla, oak, and something metallic. Flavor is very, very toasty - caramel, alcohol, hops, sweet malts... not very complex, and lots of alcohol leaves a sticky, astringent feel in the mouth. This beer is way too young, I can see it mellowing out and becoming less metallic and more complex over time. As far as the 2006 vintage goes, I’d wait a bit. Rerate - had the 98 vintage at the VSK event. I think this is maybe a little too old. Super smooth but the crispness is definitely gone - sherry notes are much more pronounced, more caramel - less bitterness.

(2002 vintage) Thanks extended to Dorwart for providing me with this tasty Christmas gift. A very tiny light tan head which disappated quickly. The beer is nicely bronzed in the glass. Decently carbonated. Nice sweet aroma. Sweet malts, cherry, honey and alcohol. Tastes of butterscotch and a hint of cherries in honey. Goes down very smooth. Good hop balance for a 2002 vintage. A very solid brew

(2002 vintage) Decent light tan head of nice dense bubbles. Frothy on top. Minimal carbonation. Nice sweet toffee and caramel aroma. Delicious. Sweet malts, butterscotch, and honey. Damn, this just may be the best smelling BW I have ever had. Color is a slightly hazy dark mahagony brown. Nice sweet malty flavor with a big alcohol kick. Lots of caramel and butterscotch again. More honey and a little bit of spices. Noticable ethanol flavor. Warms as it goes down. You would think that with all of these malts and flavors that the alcohol would not be as prominent. Finish is sweet and alcoholic and finishes dry. A great BW and one that aparently has aged very gracefully.