North Coast Brother Thelonious

Brewed by North Coast Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Fort Bragg, California USA

Smells of orange peel, spice, alcohol, somewhat mild for the style. Transparent root beer brown with fading tan head. Less carbonation than expected. Nice syrupy spice with a bit of alcohol and undertones of strawberries and orange. Overall impression improved by the tribute to this great jazz artist. Good, but I won’t be having it again anytime soon with the other available brews of this style.

Tap at Hop Leaf. Poured reddish brown with a full dark off-white head. Aroma consisted of a combination of molasses, caramel and brown sugar. Flavor was sweet with molasses and brown sugar notes. Enjoyable.

750ml - Pours a dark reddish brown in color with a small light tan head that quickly faded to a thin covering over the beer. Minor lacing on the glass. Aroma is fairly strong of Belgian yeasts and sweet malts with dark fruits (prune, dates). Flavor follows pretty closely... a bit sweeter than my taste. A bit of the alcohol in the profile, but not overwhelming. Pretty good...

Aroma of banana, chocolate malt and syrup. Really sweet flavor of fruit cake, chocolate and apricot. I really like it.

Admittedly, dubbels are not my favorite styles, but this is a a very good interpretation of the style and a fine beer. A - Beautiful color. Crystal clear and dark ruby red. Lots of carbonation bringing up wonderful smells. S - Sweet prunes/dates/malts...slight unsweetened chocolate T - Very sweet, prunes, dates, brown sugar. Not much in the way of belgian yeast flavor. Sweet finish, not a lot of bitterness. M - Nice texture and carbonation make this a pleasant feeling beer. D - A tad too sweet for my taste to make it a session beer but a very nice beer. Serving type: bottle

Bottle, Olympen, Oslo. Poured a burgundy colour with a beige head. Dark fruit aroma.Overly sweet flavour with a medicinal and rather sickly edge to it. Lacking in real body and depth. Love Monk’s music, but not really feeling this beer at all maan.

750ml bottle served into a snifter. Pour is deep ruby with a fluffy caramel colored head. Aromas of roasted malts, caramel, toffee, and chocolate. Flavor is rich and full with rasins, chocolate, sweet fruits, and caramel. This is the perfect after dinner brew to sip on.

I’m not sure of what to think of this stuff... it comes across very in my face and oversweet immediately. Poured out a nice tan head of noteworthy size but it survives by a ring only. The beer is sort of near to a mahogany and very clear. The aroma is very sweet with a huge fruit presence - cherry, raisins, wood, vodka-like alcohol nose, caramel (tons of malt) - tons of aroma but nothing that really grabs my bag. The taste is quite malty and totally lacks any obvious yeast. The taste is quite similar to the aroma except the aroma seems more on the caramel side. There are more... K, I just let it sit a further 30 minutes and here’s what I can add: the aroma becomes more refined but keeps more of a vermouth smell, the taste has also improved making this a malt bomb with good fruit, mild candy, the spice has mellowed significantly but there is still notable alcohol which isn’t that bad but it does not mix well with this burnt sugar taste. Nears full bodied, thick feeling on the mouth, smooth otherwise, very fine carbonation but I’m still on the fence with the type of bitterness I’m getting. It doesn’t last long though. Odd, this beer is completely chuggable now. I guess I like this more than I thought. I put Rime of the Ancient Mariner on permanent repeat while consuming this. Up the irons!