Struise - Blue Monk Special Reserve

Looking for some assistance to differentiate between the 2 versions http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/struise-blue-monk-special-reserve-barrel-strength/381916/ and http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/struise-blue-monk-special-reserve-bottled/401519/.

An Edinburgh bar has the beer on tap currently but I’m not sure if it’s the barrel strength version. The majority of recent ratings for the ’regular’ seem to be bottle only whereas the barrel strength appears to be bottle and tap. Was the regular ever on tap?

Pretty sure all the bottles are wrong. Barrel Strength is usually only on tap, unless explicitly mentioned (e.g. Pouck Stout). I’m not sure if they blend when filling kegs, I’ll check with the brewers.

There was a whole range of barrel strength bottles recently, but I didn’t see Blue Monk among them

The abv of the regular and barrel version is the same according to rb, so what’s the actual difference between the two versions ?!

Barrel Strength is not backblended with the non-barrel aged versions, unilke most other barrel aged beers, that are backblended for reasons like consistency, and Balance. As i understand, barrel Strength is rather an acception amongst barrel aged beers.

Maybe the name should be changed to Struise Blue Monk Special Reserve (Barrel), like we have (Cask) in the names? It was confusing for me because the strength of the barrel version and bottled version of the "Blue Monk" were the same (usually the strength also varies). Also, is there even a non-barrel version of Blue Monk or is it just blended with something like Pannepot?

All versions are barrel aged. The regular one has fresh beer blended in to achieve carbonation that way, the "barrel strength" doesn’t. The "barrel strength" versions of all Struise beers are usually very clearly labelled as such. If it isn’t you probably have the regular version.

I thought that the Cask Strength version was draft only. Bottled version is regular. All of Struise’s Cask Strength bottle beers usually state that explicitly on the bottle. I don’t think that I have ever seen the regular on tap.

this is the bs you get when doing this.
dontt get me wrong, I like Struise a lot, but this bs about cask strenght and real ale and blahblah vintage and blabla reserva and blahbla special reserva... is bs. lol.

Originally posted by bierplezier
this is the bs you get when doing this.
dontt get me wrong, I like Struise a lot, but this bs about cask strenght and real ale and blahblah vintage and blabla reserva and blahbla special reserva... is bs. lol.

Glad to see the pannepot series are still affordable.
But the cask strength versions are way too expensive.