Pour Pour Pitiful Me
Monkless Belgian Ales - The Brasserie

Very dark red brown. Light cherry scent with mostly Belgian yeast. Taste is mostly of Belgian strong dark ale. Mouthfeel of large carbonation bubbles.

Poured from 500mL bottle into my Belvárosi sörfesztivál tulip.

Appearance: rich, dark amber-brown hue with a little haze to the body and a finger of amber-tan foam.

Smell: strongly malty with a rich caramel aroma and a deep cherry flavor at the finish. Oddly enough, it reminds me more of a strong ale than a quad, but I do like the cherry at the finish.

Taste: quite caramelly, with a very rich malt flavor and an almost-spicy Belgian character. That cherry is lurking in the finish; this doesn’t ring as a true quad to me, but with that cherry in there, I still like it.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a decent carboantion and creaminess. Honestly not as rich here as I’d like it to be, but not bad.

Overall: I might not put it up there with my favorite quads, but I am a sucker for anything with cherry in it.

 

Tap at Monkless in Bend. Poured a dark, dark amber color with a small, khaki-colored head of foam. It left sudsy lacing. It smelled of raisin, plum, sweet malt and toffee. Nice dried fruit taste with sweet caramel maltiness and toffee.

 

Pours a deep brown even around the edges, fluffy light tan head that falls slow and leaves well.

Aroma is sweet malts, lots of cherry notes up front. Underneath dates, light brown sugar hints, earthy mingle with light spices.

Taste is bam big chewy malts loads of cherries, chocolate hints from the malt. Hints of dark fruits dates, brown sugar, oak, earthy notes and light spice in the finish along with some warning.

Mouthfeel big malty chewy, lightened a touch by the carbonation.

Overall pretty tasty brew.

draught
IBU: 28
Fairly dark reddish brown with dark hibiscus tea highlights, for the look. A sweet, slightly tart, light, slightly spiced molasses aroma. Sharp, caramel tinged, spiced molasses flavor, with a bit of a cloying mouthfeel, amidst the sharpness.

.5l bottle from Tavour. Mahogany colored pour, small, creamy beige head. Aroma is sweet, raisins, woody, cherries. Cherries linger into the flavor, sweet pit fruit flavors, woody barrel notes and some alcohol heat. Creamy feel with a nice sting.

"Aged and fermented over cherries," presumably not in that order. Pours a handsome amber brown with swirls of beige foam in the Brigand chalice. Spritzy and slushy on the tongue; actually a new high in the Quad mouthfeel, their being so often heavy and sugary. There is a fruity undertone of something like cherries, though very dark and yeasty in taste. Becomes rather bitter as it dries out in the aftertaste.

Overall, this is an interesting Belgian-inspired brew. It's kind of austere for more than a short tot, not to mention the numbing alcohol. From the 500 ml bottle, corked and caged.

 

500ml bottle (caged cork top) of Monkless Pour Pour Pitiful Me, served in a tulip class. Dark brown, tinged with red, and a bit muddy looking. Musty aroma with maybe a hint of overripe fruit, maybe even a tiny bit acrid. First sip strikes me with intense carbonation. Way too sharp for the style, though maybe that's a result of the beer being colder than it should be served? But beyond that, there are some interesting flavors. Sweet maraschino cherries and chocolate. One thing this Quad does really well is balance out the sweetness and alcohol so neither is overpowering. This isn't a dessert beer, not necessarily.

A really well balanced 10% quad. Clean finish and slight less hoppy and dry. But still plenty sweet and the cherries are easily detected in aroma and taste. Very well made.

 

2021-03-12


Pours a dark ruby amber, clear but clearly ruby-brown. Smell is fairly light, but dominated by dark fruity sweetness, red grapes, mild raisin, maybe fig.

Flavor is raisin and tartness. Hazy, oak, and figs.

Mouthfeel is dry and light.

 

 

awesome stuff here, one of my favorite beers we had in here, and all of them were good. this is a big quad done with cherries, and its a nicely constructed brew. a nice deep brown color with some red edges in the glass. a sweet and strong nose as the style should have, brown sugar and molasses, warming alcohol presence, sweet cherry along with prune, fig, and raisin from the malt, and the belgian yeast that came across basically the same in all of their beers, it smells cohesive, wintery, and appealing. the flavor is quite good, with the cherry coming predominantly at the end as the sweetness ramps up, and with the alcohol is almost has a cherry cordial vibe to me, less real fruit, more candied, but tasty. subtle caramel, licorice, and spiciness from the yeast, hints of clove and anise here, a little vanilla in the sweetness, and the bready heartiness of all the malt. the cherry doesnt dominate, the base beer is solid and rather nuanced, and this is smooth and drinkable with an appropriate amount of residual sweetness and alcohol. it demonstrates a good understanding of a tricky belgian style, and i reckon it would do well in a red wine barrel for a special edition! very enjoyable sipper.

edit: definitely not retired, and now double listed here on BA, recently these guys have come to boise and its nice to revisit some of these, this seems a little less rich and heavy, a little thinner than it did, equally complex now, maybe somewhat unclean on the finish but not in a flawed way, just it lingers a little odd, as my wife observed on a draft pour. still delicious, but i think i liked it slightly more when we had it at the brewery a few years ago.

edit: just had this for the first time from the bottle, courtesy of our friends traveling through. really sick glass bottle shape and the cork and cage rig make it super sexy looking. it must be bottle conditioned, and that does a lot for the texture, under the frothy lasting tan cream head it seems silkier, frothier, drier, and the effervescence on the texture is to die for, truly authentically belgian to me. the layers in this are awesome as it warms, chestnut, date, and the dark cherry with the relatively subtle belgian yeast. most impressive in this format for sure, increasing a couple of scores to reflect that.

edit: was again impressed with this from the bottle, the conditioning is amazing, it lightens this so much, enough to make it dangerous, fully explosive carbonation is amazing, some would say it kind of thins out what should be a richer style, but the flavor is still there all the way, i love the lift it has, increasing the mouthfeel score once again, its primo! no sign of its abv at all, just fabulous!

Another very fine beer, despite the lack of monks. Rich, creamy mouthfeel, dry, fruity, boozy, all the things a really great quad should be. Delicious!

Had on tap. Dark brown body, slightly cloudy, with two finger of airy khaki foam. Smell has the cherry, brown sugar, belgian yeast, dark fruit, and malts expected, but then is sneaky hoppy, enough to throw off the quad experience for me. This was less true in the taste though hops were easily detectable. Cherry not as strong as it was in smell, if anything the booze was strongest flavor. Thinner in body for quad, boozier but smooth. Ok but doesn't compare to the belgian quads of fame