Daleside Monkey Wrench

Brewed by Daleside
Style: English Strong Ale
Harrogate, England

Serve in English pint, Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Bottle. Copper with small beige head. Roasted malt, fresh, light bitterness. Thin body. Slight chocolate in aftertaste.

Weak aroma of dark malt. Color is a clear dark brown with ruby highlights, and a two-finger khaki head that quickly dissipates. Smooth malty flavor with dark fruits pulling through in the finish and a sweet aftertaste. Low carbonation and kind of watery. Nice.

Poured dark brown, smelled of roasted malts. Roasted malt and nut in the mouth with semi-sweet chocolate/toffee. Good mouthfeel with enough carbonation, but a bit thin. Not too bitter like some English strong ales I’ve had.

Once again, this is a new style to me and I have to say that I really enjoyed this beer. Poured a beautiful dark brown with a thick creamy head. This beer had so much malt and caramel to ot. Very low carbination and lacing was nice also. I did detect some rasin or fig hints to it too. I thought it was a great beer, but a stong ale? hmmmm I don’t think so, maybe I’m wrong.

I seem to have liked this beer more than others. The beer had a unique tingle when it hit the tongue. It had that sweet and thick flavor without being viscous. Great jog of having flavor without filling up my stomach.

Aroma: Heavy, estery, sweet, slightly of mashed banana, germanesque dark malts, figs, wonderful. There is a quality to the aroma that feels ‘old’. Overall very malty, with a lot of dried fruit and vaguely yeasty quality. Reminisicent of heavy, dark (non-trappist) belgians.
Appearance: Clear dark red body towards a darker hue of that of a larch tree. The starkly yellowish head fades way too fast, leaving some film and big bubbles
Flavour: The flavour comes as a perfect continuation of the aroma. It is drier than expected. It is slightly sourish and there is some malty sweetness to give it some body; but overall it’s quite a dry and bitter beer with some traditional hoppy bottom. It has an almost woody character rounded off by the mild sweetness. Anyhow, after a few sips, the beer shrinks as further complexity seems abscent – the palate getting used to the flavour way too quickly. Beyond the very good first sips it is near mawkish. I do, however, think this is respectable - and drinkable to say the least. More of session beer than a dessert beer though (obviously!)
Palate: I like the texture of the beer, it reminds me of dark belgian ale and dark english ale at once. The carbonation is quite soft yet with the sharper, smaller bubbles protruding. Fluffy and medium thick.

Cask @ Bricklayers Arms, Yorkshire BF ’08. Brown / red colour. Aromas of dark fruits, citrus, honey. Taste is sweet, malty, citrus, cherry. This is pretty nice, vaguely like an Old Ale.

Malty, roasted taste and aroma. Brown with off white head that does not last. Nothing special really, which is bad considering it cost me about 50 SEK (about 5.50 euro) in the store.