Cropton Monkmans Slaughter

Brewed by Cropton
Style: English Strong Ale
Pickering, England

Serve in English pint, Trappist glass

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Beautiful beer...super cloudy, dark brown, with a nice thick head, some lacing. Aroma is malt with a note of sour apple. I poured the yeast sediment into my glass, which gave the flavor a bit more yeast than it probably needed. Flavor is fairly balanced, but the goldings come thought just like they should. Slightly sour; cherries. The palate is too carbonated for my tastes, but overall it was a really good beer.

Brown colour, off-white head. Malty aroma, caramel, light yeast, light milk chocolate. Quite bitter flavour, hops, sweet malts, boiled eggs. Caramel finish, more boiled eggs, light hops.
(From 500mL bottle @ home)

For starters, CAMRA can say what ever they like, but that won’t make this an ESB. This beer has a fruity yeasty aroma that is Belgisch not British, with hints of earthiness. It’s umber brown with massive head. Taste is a strange tart contrasted with sweet chocolate, with an aftertaste of wet hair. It’s like a bitter with a lambic infection. I can almost see it as over aged brown ale, but too thin. I had to think this one over, but in the end I don’t care for it. However if one’s looking for something different, it’s worth a try.

500ml bottle. Clear dark brown color with a one-finger light beige head. Tart fruit aroma with herbal tea notes, maple, toffee, and tartness. Caramel and toffee base with black tea, maple, and fruits with an off-putting tartness (infected a bit?). Medium bodied and smooth, if a bit astringent. Has some good things going on, but overall not super enjoyable.

Bottle a dark brown colored beer with a white head aroma malts caramel spicy and hops flavor malts caramel fruits spicy and bitter hops in the finish

Dark brown with tan head. Malt-heavy. There’s nuts, hay and a very earthy/vegetable scent. Once on the tongue, it’s heavy bitter. Full of body, but ultimately not that pleasant.

10-Dec-11 (500-ml bottle: Purchased for $4.99 at the Pizza Port Bottle Shop in Carlsbad, CA)
Well, perhaps the bottle I had previously wasn’t spoiled after all because the beer is tart this time around too. It’s kind of an oddball for an ESB. The dark malt is bready, toasty, earthy, and very gently roasty, while a dark fruit profile includes prune, blackberry, and black currant. Unexpectedly, the beer is mildly tart, which helps to balance out the cola- and molasses-like flavors and mild sweetness, and there’s a slight smokiness in the finish. The nose is mostly the same tart, dark fruits found in the flavor, along with cola, earth, and a bit of mustiness. Light-medium in weight, medium-high and prickly in carbonation, dry on the palate, and somewhat acidic. In the glass, it’s amber-brown in color with good clarity, and the light-tan head pours to two inches of very bubbly foam that noisily fizzes away in rocky fashion to half an inch of saliva-like bubbles. Chunky strings and patches of lace stick to the glass. Overall, it’s a decent beer and quite different from expectations, but that tartness is just a bit unsettling.

Sometime in 2006? (500-ml bottle: Obtained 21-Mar-06 in trade with Lou18, thanks Lou!)
This bottle had to have been stored upside down because all the brown gooey sediment is in the neck of the bottle and on the cap. And with a fairly tart flavor, I think this bottle is past its prime too. Very hazy, dark amber, or is that a light, ruddy brown? Smallish off-white head. Need another bottle.

Bottle (rated sometime in 2008). Head is initially large, frothy, light brown, mostly lasting. Body is dark amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (cookie, cracker), lightly yeasty (barnyard), with notes of gum, plum, and bile. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, moderately bitter, unclean. Medium body, watery texture, lively carbonation.

Tasted this at the Paisley Beer Festival in April 2001. Cask, gravity dispense. Ruby black in colour with a thin buff head. Strong, intense aroma of dark hedgerow berry fruit with bramble evident. Creamy mouthfeel and good lacing. Dark malt complex gives rich moist maltloaf base with sweet treacle fudge, molasses, chocolate and maple syrup. Short prickle of dusty hop which vanishes quickly. Finish is robust and heavy on the malt with dry liquorice and blackcurrant fruit flavours which are strong in intensity. This is a superb English Strong Ale and very popular judging by the number of reviews. Highly recommended.

Bottle. Pours clear mahogany with a large, frothy light tan head, long retention with excellent lacing. Aroma is dark fruits of plum, raisins, and figs, light earthy hops, biscuit and bread malt with a light acetic nose. Flavor is subdued malt behind sour and tart dark fruits with lightly spicy hops and a dry finish. Medium body, low warmth, medium carbonation.

Dark brown colour with a thin head, toffee/fudge aroma, smooth bitter caramel malt taste, very good.