Brooklyn Monster Ale

Brooklyn Monster Ale is a classic barley wine, a style of ale originally brewed by the butlers to the English and American aristocracy. It is brewed from three mashes of heirloom British malt and spiced with aromatic American Willamette, Cascade and Fuggle hops.

After four months of aging, it has a magnificent burnished copper color, an aroma redolent of sherry, citrusy hops and fruit, a soft, warming, complex palate, a spiritous finish, and a strength of 10.8%.

It is vivacious when young, but will age gracefully for many years, becoming more complex over time.

Food Matches

Brooklyn Monster Ale is a fine accompaniment to cheeses, ice cream, flourless cakes, crème brulee and good cigars.

3.6

1575 reviews

Brooklyn, United States

Community reviews

3.0 On draft at HopCat. The pour is a lighter golden orange with a thin ring of light tan head and a couple spots of soapy lace. The aroma is bitter and fruity. There isn’t any caramel or malty sweetness. It’s bitter and dank with a light fruitiness. Not the best. The flavor is much of the same. Heavy bitterness and light hop. The sweetness is just long gone. The mouth feel is thin and light with a lingeringly bitter hop finish. This isn’t anything like what I want in a barleywine. Fuck.

3.7 Bottles (2006-2011). Brown pour with little head. Oxidation, sweet malt, boozy aromas. Flavors are sweet, light oxidation and boozy notes.

3.4 Refrigerated 12 oz. brown bottle poured into a cup. Opaque burnt orange with small off-white head. Aroma is caramel malt, medium body, a little carbonation, and little lacing. Taste is caramel malt and some herbal hops for balance.

3.9 October 9, 2016. Bottle at home. Clear deep ruby red with a small off- white head. Aroma is sweet malty and fruity with toffee, brown sugar, plum, prunes, raisins, some vanilla, port, some nutty notes. Taste is sweet, light vinous and light bitter. Finish is slightly warming, sweet toffee notes, prunes, plum, lingering bitterness with a dry grassy and piney note. Medium to full bodied, somewhat creamy texture, soft small bubble carbonation. Nice, would prefer less lingering bitterness but in the other hand that balance the sweetness and make it quite easy drinkable.

3.9 0.355 l bottle from ’Rudat’ at 10.1% abv, bottled in November 2012 (almost four years old). Clear, deep reddish amber with a thin, frothy, slowly diminishing, off-white head. Sweetish, malty and slightly fruity aroma of toffee, treacle, raisins, prunes and vanilla. Rather sweet, malty and a bit fruity taste of toffee, vanilla, treacle, raisins, orange peel, cinnamon and prunes, followed by a medium long, rather bitter, quite warming and a bit alcoholic finish. Full body, oily mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Really nice sipper, held up fantastically. Not overly complex or sophisticated, but quite intense and with a lovely mouthfeel.

3.7 Bottle: Thanks Owen: Served in a Duvel glass: Creamy head. Warm nutty amber red body. Nose of malts, soap, little iron, some caramel, some grains, hints of prunes, something plastic ish and bread. Flavours of bitters, malts, little alcohol tint, caramel, some toast, bread, hints of grains and dried prunes and some caramelised crust... Aftertaste is bitter, malty, toast, bread, crust and nutty with dried prune sprinkles. Low carbo, creamy silky close to oily mouthfeel, more than medium bodied.

3.5 355ml. Bottle at unibar. Wierd color almost no head. Aroma is sweet, caramel, alcohol. Taste is sweet and spicy aftertaste of alchohol. Good beer.

2.9 Floral aromas and alcohol, bread and raisin skin too. Taste is bread, floral hops, caramel, raisin, brown sugar, orange peel, and alcohol.

2.9 En god barley wine. Den er ikke sprittet i smagen til trods for den høje procent, har lavt kulsyre indhold, og er i det hele taget en god øl der helt klart godt kan nydes alene (altså uden mad)

3.6 Bottle shared at Daniels place. 20/02/2016. Many thanks to Daniel for this one. Nice bright dark orange amber coloured pour with a fine cream coloured head . Aroma is solvent, amber, brown sugars and orange rind. Flavour is composed of semi sweet, rounded malts, little orange, tangy, rounded a little hot. Palate is semi sweet, semi drying moderate carbonation. Good.

3.7 330ml bottle shared at home in Richmond, as ’Brooklyn Monster Ale’, 10.8%, 2012 vintage. Dark amber orange, clear, still, small foamy off-white head. Aroma is dried orange and toffee, resin, some booze. Body is smooth, rounded, soft carbonation. Taste is boiled sweets, honey, sherry, resinous and dry into the finish. A pretty nice barley wine overall.

3.7 Bottle shared at the Richmond tasting - many thinks to Daniel. Vintage 2012. Pours clear honey-orange with a creamy, off-white head. Toasted biscuits in the nose, some pine and marmalade, hints of earth. Medium sweet flavor with ripe, gooey citrus fruits, orange, some melon, papaya, moderate loose piney bitterness. Medium to full bodied, creamy, with fine carbonation. Warming finish with rich bready malts, some further oily pine, marmalade, tangerine, a bit of rindy bitterness. Very good stuff. Has aged nicely.

3.6 2012 bottle in Richmondo. Thanks to Danny. It pours clear rich oily orange - amber with a small white head. The nose is rich, oily, fruit cake, candied peel, dried apricot, honeyed grain, alcohol heat, marzipan and candy. The taste is rich, oily, chewy, fruit cake, apricot, peach, warming alcohol, earth, spice and wood with a warming finish. Full body, fine carbonation and oily mouth - feel. Not a huge amount is depth, but you get a good boost.

3.4 12 oz 2009 bottle served in a clear goblet (from 2011 notes). Pours a hazy reddish amber with a coat of bone head that quickly reduces to a lasting ring. Aroma - quite boozy. My 2 most recent tastings (Hopslam and Trois Pistoles) had ABVs nearly as high but smelled less boozy. All is not bad here, however, and the alcohol odors are accompanied by some nice fruity tones and the smell of toasted malt. Taste - not as nearly as boozy as the aroma suggests, at first, with a nice toasted malt taste. This is soon overpowered and replaced by a sherry or port-like finish. Insufficient aftertaste. Insufficient hops, even for the English style. Improved with warming. M - smooth but perhaps a bit too thin and very slightly unpleasant effects of alcohol on the tongue. Noticeable warming on the way down. Semi-dry. O - no question I enjoyed this, but I’m hoping to find more appealing examples of this fairly unfamiliar style.

4.7 355mL bottle BBE: Nov 2014 (aged). Lightly chilled (approx. 12 degrees). Pours a cloudy chestnut-ruby body with small, tight, creamy fawn head giving full coverage. Sweet, high intensity nose of dried fruit and assorted candy including mint, liquorice and butterscotch, with herbal/basil notes and a more onion-like character also present. A high-medium maple sweetness is balanced by a light bitter chocolate and the high abv, which lends a gentle warming, spirit-like quality. Full-bodied with a thick, almost syrupy texture, carbonation is low-medium, and the finish is long and warming. An incredibly complex ale that conceals its high abv well. Comparisons to a sweet sherry are inevitable, and this would undoubtedly hold its own against the very best.

4.3 Ambar anaranjada, de un par de dedos de espuma ocre. Turbia, buen aspecto. Aroma acaramelado con notas de naranja. En boca buen cuerpo y bien de gas.sabor magnifico, de cierto tono licórico, con recuerdo a cointreau, por las notas de naranja. Acaramelada, malteada en la base. Muy cremosa, muy sabrosa. Excelente.

4.1 Keg at Mother Kelly’s. Pours dark copper orange colour with two finger off white head.Aroma is of caramel, toffee, booze, sherry, dark fruits,leather and tobacco. Taste is of sweet salted caramel, sherry, plums finishing with hop bitterness. Medium to full bodied. Very good barley wine.

4.2 Keg at mother Kelly’s London. It pours a clean copper color with medium off white head. Aroma is rich sweet with caramel and dark fruits. Taste is sweet and bold with light booze and light tangy red fruits and red wine. Full bodied with good carbonation. Overall, super tasty

4.1 Vermelho acobreado, espuma de baixa formação e persistência. Aroma com álcool bem presente, uva vermelha presente, bem maltada, açucarada. Paladar de dulçor e álcool intensos. Corpo licoroso, baixa carbonatação. Aftertaste característico de uvas, doce, duradouro.

3.3 Pours brown with little to no head. Aroma is nutty. Quite a nutty flavour too, some red fruits like plum and cherry with a malty finish. One of the better barleywines I’ve had

3.9 2014 vintage - Draft at Hopcat GR - pours a hazy orange . Mild caramel aroma. Soft fruit notes and sweet caramel , very nice

4.9 The foam is hardly found in this beer. The fragrance is sharp contrast, both fruit, malt and alcohol. A pronounced vinous aroma, which is on par with the best vintage wines I have tasted. And what a taste! It explodes in the mouth with an abundance of fruit (plum, orange, raisin and a lot more). Then enter the alcohol briefly on stage, leaving a good warm feeling before malt sweetness and hop bitterness are united in something I have never tasted better before.

4.1 a bottle from 2012, smells of cigars and old leather, malt and butterscotch, dark cloudy amber brown colour with some foamy off-white head. is sweet at first with whats left of the hops giving a little kick in the finish, flavours of vanilla, cherry and cigar smoke and maple smoked bacon? i cant quite pinpoint what it is! very nice and smooth

3.3 Hazy red-amber with very small ivory head and low carbonation, as anticipated. Aromas of toffee, butterscotch, earthy hops, cognac. The taste has the expected toffee malt dominance, with grassy hop bitterness. Pretty good.

3.6 1700! Pours clear brown with almost no head and just some spots of lacing. Nose is sweet and leather. Flavours of caramel, brown bread, leather, some ginger maybe. Taste medium sweet, medium bitter. Medium body, somewhat oily with medium carbonation and a long bitter finish.

4.0 bottle from plonk. 8 months past best before of November 2014. deep amber pour with almost no head. Rich alcohol and malt aroma, flavour similar. raisin, dried fruit. warming alcohol. great english barley wine, pleasant surprise from Brooklyn as I was expecting a hop bomb American style barley wine.

3.9 Coloração vermelha acobreada,líquido levemente licoroso,espuma bege com baixa formação e manutenção;aroma com boa complexidade apresentando frutas vermelhas,malte tostado,caramelo,notas cítricas e defumadas,alem de um bom perfume herbáceo; sabor encorpado,com um dulçor inicial e um picante finalizando,o frutado e o defumado do aroma continuam,um amadeirado e o álcool(bem inserido) também aparecem,baixa carbonatação,final adocicado e alcoólico,porem com retrogosto com pequeno amargor. Ótima cerveja,para ser degustada com calma e lentamente.

4.0 0.33 bottle. Delicately hazy, light brown color with a crimson hue and almost no head. Aroma of nuts, dough, yeasts, sugar, and some wood - hard to describe but great. Taste is sweet, malty, some caramel, a tad fruity. Full body, creamy texture, and soft carbonation. Finish is an amazing combination of fruity and malty flavors. Overall a great beer, although I am partial to barleywines so it has to be taken into account.

4.9 Pours dark amber with yellowish head. Intense aromas: honey, caramel, orange, Halls drop, white flowers, fig leaf, butterscotch, molasses... Creamy, full-bodied, powerful. Sheer bitterness marks the long finish. Delicious.

3.6 Version 2012 Robe ruby, sans carbo ni collet. Aromes fruits rouge, alcool, caramel. Tres ronde, liquoreuse, des saveurs cherry, chaude et longue sur la finale.