Samuel Adams Grumpy Monk

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Pours a clear-copper color with whispy white head. Boozy, cherry, spiced aroma. Moderately sweet with a defined cherry, booze edge and a hoppy finish.

12 oz bottle from mix pack. Pours a clear copper color with a medium off-white head that has fair retention. The aroma is mild with Belgian style yeasts and spices. The taste is dominated by the yeasts with a bit of clove spiciness and some pine accentuating a bready malt backdrop. The palate is full and smooth with lively carbonation. The finish is long with lingering yeast. Overall: This beer is probably better than I am rating it, but I’m just sort of burned out on the whole Belgian IPA thing. Give me a dubbel or give me an IPA , but please stop stop this nonsense.

12oz bottle. All around decent, but exemplary of why many belgian IPAs aren’t very good. The hops + yeast character comes across as apply and reminiscent of a below average saison. Everything gets muddled to hell.

Pours clear amber orange with a frothy, lasting off-white head and great lacing. Aroma is yeast, caramel, and a little piney, earth hop if you really look for it. Taste is spicy yeast, into a dry middle and then just a touch of piney bitterness that barely cuts through the sweetness. One of the least hoppy IPAs I’ve had, as the hops get a little lost in the spices. It’s hit or miss with each drink, but at least it has variety. Not a bad brew.

Bottle; poured a nice looking amber-orange color with a frothy light khaki head. Aroma of belgian sugar and yeast, caramel, pine, and earth. The hop profile took a bit of a while to emerge; some warmth did it good. Alot of sweetness and candi sugar upfront. Piney hops. Worked fairly well overall.

Bruised with notes of banana and wildflower honey, this skewed Belgian IPA is an interesting cat’s cradle of flavors that sometimes work; sometimes don’t. The piney, rough edges of the hoppiness don’t always work with the cloying sweetness of the Beglian style, still, it’s a worth a try.

12 fl oz / 355mL bottle into a pint glass. Served cool. Aroma: LOTS of spice. Really, really strong spice aroma. Backed up by a little, slight malt, and hops are buried under all that. Appearance: Transparent rust with a somewhat creamy off-white head. Taste: Spices and lemon. Then some nice yeast and malt. Hops are at the very end, and can get lost in the other flavors in this one, which aren’t bad at all. Palate: Nice body. Flavors sit for a liiiiiiiittle bit, but not too long. Neat finish. Overall: For a beer that’s sold as a "Belgian IPA", I was hoping for a stronger hop character. The hops are there, but they’re not the main flavor, and can get lost behind the others. It’s a good beer though, and I would definitely drink it again.

On tap: The aroma consists of citrus, bubblegum, grapefruit, and a hint of pepper. It pours a transparent amber with a small white head that leaves a sheet of lacing on the sides of the glass. The flavor starts with with moderate citrus and bubblegum. There is some faint banana in the background. The finish has moderate grapefruit and spicy hops. It’s medium bodied with soft carbonation and mouthfeel. Overall, if Belgian IPAs are your thing, this is really good.

Pours a lightly hazy golden amber with a large foamy white lacing head. Aroma of spicy and peppery Belgian yeast character along with a nice citrusy, floral and piney nose. Flavor of grapefruit, pine needles and other mixed citrus paired nicely with spicy Belgian yeast notes.

First thing I noticed was the Belgian yeast character. It is quite hoppy for a Belgian ale, but nothing like a west coast IPA. The spice was evident as was some malt/bread crust and citrus hops. A small amount of fruit. An interesting beer but nothing to write your parents about.