Cellaring Blushing Monk

Personally I wouldn't intentionally age them or hold onto them for too long. I think it tastes amazing fresh and would guess if anything, the fruit will just fade over time. It isn't a sour beer so I don't think while it ages and loses fruit it will get more sour, so I don't really see it getting any better.

 

The fruitiness which makes this beer great, in my opinion, will most likely have a tendency to fade off with extended cellaring. I'd drink sooner than later.

 

Like mentioned above, unless you have a bunch of these, I would drink it sooner than later.

 

Exactly. I got a bottle in a trade and it was one of the first bottles I drank after I opened the box. I wanted all of the intended flavors in my gullet.

 

We opened an '06 (I think? Whatever the last batch was) and the new one side-by-side, and I honestly preferred the older one. Still had a ton of rich fruit flavor, which I though was made even better by the jammy/sherry flavors from the slight oxidation. The new one was still great though, very "bright" flavor, and who knows if it will age as well.

I also highly recommend one part Blushing Monk to two parts Double Black... just a couple ounces though. Darn tasty stuff.

 

this was my experience with the original bottling being a better beer IMHO but they are different recipes so who knows how the recent batch will do with some cellar time.

 

I don't think there was a recipe change. The difference in label ABV% was due to inaccurate measurement back in 2007. I don't have the link back to the old forum, but I'm pretty sure there was a Founders person that confirmed as much (they retested an old bottle).

There was a bottle of the 2007 release opened at a Detroit tasting last year. I thought it was really good. Very slightly muted (but still tasty) fruit along with a little oxidation rounded it out nicely. I never tried that batch fresh, but I have to think sitting on this for awhile won't hurt it.