12 Monkeys
Saltfire Brewing

This is the 2023 edition of this perennial brew. Pours a nearly clear dark amber with fine-grained foam in the Kasteel chalice. Aromatic with mango and orange. Flavor is bitter orange peel and pine. Smooth and creamy mouthfeel with tangy finish. Rather bitter and somewhat sweet like marmalade but not so sugary. Hot with alcohol. Quite interesting for sipping. From the 16 oz can purchased at the Saltfire brewpub.

 

 

After reading the one review of this beer, I am curious about this beer. The reviewer said the beer has sulfur. The skunked is the only form of sulfur I have encountered thus far in beer. Popped the cap off and the beer emitted a subtle hiss. The pour of the beer in the glass produced a two finger brilliant white head. The head is creamy and foamy. The head dissipated slowly and left lacing on the glass. The color of the beer is SRM 4 a pale gold color with amber hues. The clarity of the beer is clear to brilliant. A few carbonation bubbles dance lazily to the top.

The initial aroma of the beer is tropical notes ( papaya and pineapple). Next, I smell resin, pine, grapefruit, floral, a subtle malty sweetness, crackers, herbal, and grassy. I do not detect any form of sulfur.

The flavors in the beer are resin, pineapple, mango, grapefruit, pine, floral, a malty sweetness, herbal, crackers, phenols, solvent, and grassy.

The mouthfeel of the beer is astringent and crisp.

The body of the beer is medium, the carbonation is medium, and a full finish.

This beer does not deserve the poor rating it has gotten thus far, 2.78. The beer is far better than that, yet it is not off the charts amazing. The beer has these high fruity notes with the west coast pine, grapefruit, and resins. The harmony in the beer is off for me. The solvent and phenols are a distractor. High alcohol is part of why this exists. The beer overall is worthy of a B or higher, not an F.

 

500 ml bottle from the brewery store. Pours clear gold with a small white head. Nose is just sulfur, I can’t get anything else. Tasteis mostly that sulfur with a little sweet malt. This isn’t right. I bought this from the brewery store a couple of weeks ago and it has been refrigerated constantly so it’s just bad.