My Monkey's Got Wood
Pratt Street Ale House

 

 

 

 

On draft at Churchkey:

Review from notes:

Pours a dark brown w/ almost zero head, carbonation, or lacing. Considering the ABV, this isn't surprising. Nose is basically malt, oak, caramel, slight alcohol. Not super complex, and probably the weak point in this brew. Taste profile is the same w/ some dark fruit added into the mix. I can't believe this is a 13% ABV beer, it really is stealthy in that regard. Feel is medium w/ a slight alcohol burn on the aftertaste. Overall, this is a good brew, but not great. Glad I got to try it on draft.

Beer is light brown and mostly clear with a nice tan head that leaves a little lacing on the glass, carbonation low, served on cask.

Beer smells sweet with oak, the oak is pretty obvious, especially next to the unoaked version.

Beer is thin and sweet with a nice wood element late. It's a little bitter in the back but overall it's nice and clean. I'd have it again but it's really high in ABV and I didn't realize that until it was almost too late.

Cask on tap at Frisco's in Columbia, md. Served into a snifter.

a: pours a dark brown with a little burgundy color. Minimal head, no lacing. Given that this was from a cask though, I can't really complain too much.

s: not overly pungent. I get some floral notes, caramel, and of course oak.

t: quite a sweet beer. The first tastes I get are tart cherries and burnt sugar. The oakiness definitely comes through on the finish and leaves it with a little bit of a bitter finish.

m: smooth, medium body. Slightly sticky. Wonderful feel.

d: the alcohol is hidden very well and this is quite a tasting/interesting beer. Very drinkable!

From notes, drank on 2/14/10 at the Pratt Street Ale House in Baltimore, MD.

This was a hand crafted cask of oak-aged barleywine. They had one cask of their Hot Monkey Love from last year and aged it for another year in oak barrels.

a - Poured into a 10 oz. snifter, MMGW poured a dark reddish brown color, with 1 finger of foam that had great retention. No carbonation evident.

s - Had a very sweet smell of malts, and also smelled strongly of oak.

t - Tasted strongly of oak and vanilla. It was much more subdued than I was expecting considering it is 13-13.5% ABV.

m - Medium body that was very smooth and easy to drink.

d - The amazing/scary thing about this beer was that the alcohol was not evident at all. I talked with the manager who said when they put it in the oak barrel it was over 12%, so they were placing it now at 13-13.5% ABV, but it could not be tasted whatsoever. My girlfriend who does not usually like high ABV beers loved it as well. Unfortunately they only had one cask of this, so I would suggest heading to the Ale House in the next few days. This was an amazing barleywine.