Monkish Brewing (January 2017)

With crowlers?!?

 

I'm honestly surprised they still make any Belgian beers. As much as I enjoyed them, it's easy to see the incentive for breweries to exploit these crazes. I used to love stopping by Monkish when in the area, place was never crazy packed and the beers were innovative and usually very solid.

In all honesty, I can't imagine ever going back now. For those that still go, what percentage of their taps are still dedicated to non-funky Belgian beers?

 

Current taplist has four Belgians, two IPAs, three sour ish beers, and one milk stout

 

I remember going to Naja's about about nine years ago, and I thought I knew craft beer pretty well at that point. I asked Martin or Jay...whomever...I asked them, "How can you guys have Supplication or Old Guardian or Pliny or these other fucking awesome beers alongside Coors Light and shit?" All he replied was, "What do you think pays for those kegs of awesome beer?"

 

I obviously don't have access to their books so it's impossible to know definitively how they were fairing as a business before the haze craze tore through there. I know people aren't exactly lining up to get Belgian tripels but I feel like Monkish lost some of its soul once they began making IPA's.

 

oh christ

 

Hopefully Monkish and other breweries will continue to offer Belgian influenced beers. I'd hate to see those go by the wayside at the expense of whatever the latest fad is, but I understand there are bills to pay too.

 

I concur, Lessons is fantastic.

 

My buddy also preferred LiL over DDH Spock but he doesn't like "traditional" bitter IPAs and I thought the DDH went a long way in making it more bitter. I enjoyed it, but I also have always liked West Coast/over-hopped IPAs.

 

This should help noticeably... at least at open when there is a 40-60' long line for fills.

 

Tart and delicious. Reminded me a bit of Celestial Fuzz.

 

I think maybe 3-4 hoppy beers on is the most I've seen. They have, what, 10-12 taps?

 

Their online pre-sales for bottles always sell out quite fast.

 

You mean the ones where they sell 1-300 bottles of another safe and incredibly popular style? I would say that I'd like to see what would happen if they tried to sell a small batch Belgian quad but I think we all know what would happen.

 

Its because so many of the bottle go to the pre-pre group. Also, not sure if BA sours are "safe", at least when compared to the kettle sours that a lot of other places typically do.

They do loads of non-fruited saisons that are often available to take home but I haven't noticed a quad available. But that could just be a demand issue from the customer.

I mean, I'd rather drink Monkish's non-fruited, regular saisons over Jester King's regular non-fruited 750 mL stuff.

 

Soooooo.... you're only required to sell niche market items otherwise you're selling your soul?

Come on now, Henry's cranking out stuff on her own terms. Regardless if it's a popular style or not.

 

You mean like Select Monk 4? I enjoyed it when it was on tap and from the bottles I had.Is that what's suppose to happen?

 

Was there a line of people, their kids, their relatives, day laborers, and other vagrants out the door and around the corner to acquire it? Did it sell out in .34455 seconds online? I think you know what I'm saying...

 

These styles are safe in my book because they can be made on a small scale and these days, little track record is required to sell them all. Beer folks aren't too skeptical like they would be if Monkish tried to market an uber-rare Belgian dubbel. The use of the quad was just an example as opposed to a specific beer they made.

 

ok