Terrapin Oak Aged Big Hoppy Monster

Brewed by Terrapin Beer Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Athens, Georgia USA

Brown with ruby highlites. Thin beige head. Nice fresh, floral hop aroma, with a touch of oak. The oak is more prominate than in the aroma. Th oak aging mixes well with the beer. I liked this one quite a bit.

Name: Big Hoppy Monster 2008, oak aged
Date: November 02, 2008
Mode: Draft
Source: Taco Mac, Decatur
Appearance: muddy dark red, fine beige head, drippy lace
Aroma: sweet dark caramel and vanilla aroma balanced by fresh hops
Flavor: big sweet caramel and vanilla flavor, spicy hops combine with peppery alcohol, light bitter finish, big oak and earthyness comes in on the second goblet, touch of hot spicy alcohol in the finish
Overall: the caramel and vanilla meld well together, the oak and earthyness make a good pair, but the two teams gang up and fight each other

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.6/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Name: Big Hoppy Monster 2008, oak aged
Date: November 14, 2008
Mode: Draft
Source: Brick Store Pub
Appearance: clear dark ruby red, fine beige head, sheets of grey lace
Aroma: sweet caramel and vanilla aroma
Flavor: lots more of the oak coming through in the flavor, the oak is playing well with the vanilla and caramel this time making for a great complex profile, oak gets a bit too strong after a while and combines with the hop bitterness

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: **4

Appearance: Murky-looking, brown body with some orangey-amber hints at the edges and topped by a thin, whitish head. Smell: Rich caramel malts scented with vanilla and citrusy grapefruit rinds and, oh yes, there’s plenty of pungent oak character to go around. Taste: Earthy, toasty malts with a full caramel sweetness. Touch of vanilla. It’s right about this time the oak starts rolling in, drying out the flavor and practically soaking up any remaining sweetness like a doggone sponge. This leaves the tongue wide open for the assault of citrusy hops and their full bitterness. Finishes bitter and exceptionally dry. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Some oak jobs I love and some, well... I found this top by a bit over-the-top. Personally, I would be much happier to have just the plain ole’, regular BHM.

This poured a dark red almost brown color with an off white head. Aroma was bursting with citrus hops with hints of the oak and sticky sweet malts there as well. Flavor was tremendous, just a perfect blanace of hop bitterness, malty sweetness and a nice whiskey/oak flavor to liven things up

On tap at the Room. Hazy dark reddish-brown with a rich head. Smells like a chewy caramel lumber yard. Fully body, creamy, bitter, woody, and lots of vanilla. Cohesive, it is ok stuff but as with any Terrapin beer too much crystal malt. Thus, it does not come together all that well and it gets tough to finish the glass.

on tap at the Crabapple Taco Mac location. dark red in color with no head on arrival to the table. nice licorice, vanilla and subdued hop aromas. medium to full body. very soft over the palate with a strong finish that really brings the oak and vanilla to the front of your tastebuds. some mild citrus notes in linger in the background. overall this was very enjoyable and even better than the plain old big hoppy monster.

Absolutely Outstanding. Terrapin does their oak-aged beers with great skill. The notes of vanilla and light oak pull through the citric hops with great complexity. I had to stop and enjoy a couple pints of this… and then I had a couple waters, because this beer really snuck up on me.

The oak aging here really chills teh hips and makes this a much different (and more subtle) beer. Hint of vanilla in teh back of the palate and some nice red fruit up front. I may be biased towards the local guys on this one but I really enjoyed this one.