Fish Tale Monkfish
Brewed using Pale malt, Honey malt, aromatic malt, Belgian candy sugar, Styrian Golding hops and, of course, Belgian Abbey yeast, Monkfish stands firmly in the Belgian triple tradition. And remember: Whereas triple ale is the soul of the Belgian favorite, Carbonnade a la Flamande, this classic stew is made all the better by two bottles of Monkfish—one for the pot, the other for your glass.
3.4
174 reviews
Olympia, United States
Community reviews
Thanks to purplehops for bringing this one along to or regular tasting. The bottle had about three years of age on it. The first thing that amazed about this brew was it’s color which was a nice shade of amber. We poured the brew into snifters and receive a nice finger worth of white head that fizzled out rather quickly to a slight ring around the glass. The aroma was what expected from a triple your typical Belgian yeast but the good thing was it was not that huge banana note but rather subdued which is a plus in my book. You also got a few notes of vanilla and spice to balance it out. The flavor was almost the same sweet and spicy with some nice fruit flavors as well. The feel in my mouth was medium and it was a bit syrupy. I liked the brew not what I pictured appearance wise from a triple but the flavor was great.
Serving type: bottle
Tap @ Barleywine & Big Beer Fest... [2009 Vintage] Poured golden/amber with an off-white head. Estery, spiced nose. Mild skunk, some citrus, and other light fruits. Candied sweet malts and what tones, vanilla, yeast and a light, clean finish. This was great. I nice mix up to the heavy, viscous BW beers.
The smell and flavour remind me of that peach stuff that appears everywhere but I’ve never actually tried. It seems artificial and mine was totally flat, though there was slight mold on the bottle so maybe it’s old...? whatever, this was totally un-impressive except for the colour and the way the apricot seems to be there, but not in a real nice way.
Bottle from Healthy Spirits. Pours amber with a thin off-white head and a fruity aroma. There is a sweet caramel malt flavor with a lot of yeast and a dry bitter finish.
Bottle. Aroma of spice, malt, dark fruit? and some bitterness. Taste is the same. Not much standing out. Plenty of spice and coriander. A bit of malt and some old fruits. A decent beer but not anything special.
2009 bomber from Bottleworks. Pours amber with an off-white head. Aroma is ripe/cooked fruit. Medium body with mild carbonation. Flavor is rather malty with darkish fruit. Mild spice and decent bitter. Rather bitter astringency. Heat is detectable. An interesting beer.
650 ml bottle from Holiday. This is 2009 vintage. Pours a dark copper color with a small white head that soon fades to a fine ring. The aroma is mild and undistinguished with caramel and spruce. The flavor is dominated by hot alcohol with an assortment of mixed fruits filling in the back end. The palate is malty smooth. The finish is medium in duration. Overall: I find the hot alcohol too distracting to ever enjoy this, consider 2.8 a generous rating.
Golden colored. Initially the aroma reminded me a little more of a pilsner. Aroma is sweet pale malts, light spices, a little bit of grass.Medium to light bodied, somewhat hot, lightly sweet. Not a favorite.
2009 bottle. Slightly hazy gold pour with white head. Fruit, banana, spice, sweet malt, and citrus notes. Alcohol is noticable. Meh, its alright.
Fuck. Jordan at Holiday said it was the barrel aged one and I didn’t inspect the bottle enough to realize its not. Fuck. I hate trippels but I love fish’s barrel aged stuff...but, I guess the battle will have to go down another day. Pours perfectly transparent, bronze in color, with quickly dissipating fizzy white head. Nose isn’t all that enticing, mostly yeast with a sweet corn-like macro lager tone. Flavors are clashing pile of phlegmy yeast, cloying bitterness and cloying sweetness, and hot malt liquor-like tones everywhere. The finish is extremely astringent and bitter and hot. This is seriously an absolute mess of a beer on ever single level imaginable. Such a hot astringent tasting beer and dangerously close to tasting like a high alcohol malt liquor with a seriously unneeded bitter finish. Now, like i said...i don’t like trippels...but I usually score them fairly...this is no exception, unfortunately fair here is damn fucking low.
Fish Brewing Company--Monkfish Belgian Style Triple Ale--Reel Series--2006 Release--12 oz. Bottle--8.50% ABV--25 IBU’s? (4.5 / 5.0) Belgian Ale--Trippel--Thick Pour. Mild sediment Mild lacy head. Cloudy bright amber orange color. Mellow Belgian spice rich hop malt front. Smooth rich creamy malty caramel wheat body. Balanced rich hop spice Belgian ester end!! Sampled 5/28/2006. 2 Left.
Bomber bottle, 2009 vintage, up to 10% ABV. heavily carbonated, bubbles crawling all over the side of the glass. Clear medium brown color with a high apple, tart aroma, heavy on belgian yeasts and esters. flavor is really cloying sweet. It’s decent, but really generic for a tripel. It follows the style well, but does nothing new.
The was the 2009 version from a 22 oz bottle. It poured a cloudy orange with a moderate white head and average lacing rings. The aroma is ripe fruit at first, and then you detect coriander and citrus. The mouthfeel is light but smooth. The flavor is dominated by the malts with some light citrus hops in the background The finish is lightly bitter. For a Tripel Ale this was relatively mild, but it was quite enjoyable.
Bronze colored with a decent head. Bready & doughiness dominate both aroma and flavor, though quite drinkable. Strong dusty-yeasty component. Sourdough finish.
pours a clear orange-ruby with a thin off-white head, and some lacing.
smell of dark fruit, some caramel, and sour malt.
taste is a little tart, prunes, grapes, some bread yeast, and some sour malt, ends on the dry side and just a little bitter.
11/10/2007: Fish Tale Monkfish Triple has an apricot to burnt golden color. It contains lots of really tiny bubbles on the surface and looks thick. The off-white crown is thin and foamy. The beer itself is cloudy/murky and appears mostly opaque. The aroma is like alcohol-soaked dried fruit with deep ctirus and rich caramel maltiness. Rich and deep toasted and caramel maltiness as well of suggestions of darker roasted malts are found in the flavor as well as various fruit flavors, including peach, sweet honey, orange, pear, pineapple, and lots of apricot in the finish. This beer is dry toward the finish and strong, but the alcohol is well-hidden and contained. This beer is also slightly earthy in the middle with a subdued, borken-down hoppiness. The body of this beer is medium-full and is has a smooth and mellow texture. This is not the typical Tripel, but still damn good!
22 fl. oz. bottle () from mcbackus via trade in September 2006. Thanks! Rating #140 for this beer.
***sort of a re-review, Jan 6, 2010***
Well, this bottle was bought at the same time as the original reviewed beer from Spring 2006. It aged wonderfully. Not 2.5 now - twas early in my review days. I kinda drank this before I opened this page... Good Tripel qualities, still a nice bitterness.. went down smooth with very good flavours. Still isn’t a classic but, damn, that was really good. Last bottle! booooo.
******
Excellent mildly cloudy orange with a tiny ammount of dark sediment, but poured a small light tan head with little lacing. Where’s my awsome Belgium lacing??? Aroma is very fresh and mild with some light spice. Fruity aromas of peach and then apples. Some sugary smell too along with a noticable floral aroma. Not even the faintest alcohol smell. Very pleasant smelling, but weak and once again the style is missed with the lack of spices. Taste is also pleasant but too soft. Taste is more of an aftertaste. Malty and sweet fruits (oranges and lemon), some spice - mostly in the lingering aftertaste - and raisins (weak if at all). Seems watered down....maybe it’s the yeast. Not quite medium bodied, it’s very smooth and could use a bit more carbonation on the swish. I do like the ’smack your mouth’ spicy bitterness which is not overpowering whatsoever. Man, I could drink a ton of this, and I will by more cause it really is a good drink, but all in all it never lives up to anything from Belguim. How can I rate this so low when I enjoyed drinking it so much? Easy. On a side note, buy 2 or more bottles - one for sampling and the rest for cellaring. I’m curious how good this could be if it sits. It better be or I’ll pissed off. I’ve got high expectations of Fish Beer.
Beer pours a dark cloudy honey brown with zero head just a skiff of microscopic bubbles floating on top, where’s my massive Belgian head!?!?!?! Very mild floral yeast aroma that gets pushed to the side by some potent hops, this is suppose to be a Belgian triple hops are not suppose to be this aggressive. Hops dominate the taste with some weak malts and limited yeast. Beer is lacking any spicy notes and citrus qualities, more yeast started to show up when the beer warmed. It’s not a bad beer it’s drinkable it’s just a crappy triple, Fish tale fell way short on the style here, but they did brew a drinkable beer.
Malt. Lightly sweet. Very much like a barleywine, nearly still, some hops. Lightly cloudy.
2004 version. 136th rate of this beverage. Consumed this one after the Mikkeller Simcoe while watching Dexter in bed. An interesting nightcap. Interesting aroma somewhat akin to an aged tripel. Dust, sweet caramel and bready notes, touch of bittering hops, some fruity notes underlying in there too. Somewhat yeasty, but dulled due to age. Pours a hazy golden amber with a thin non lasting head and tons of floating debris in there. Sweet flavors initially, caramel, touch of dust, some oxidized notes, pepper, and light bitterness. Sweeter than expected. A touch of alcohol. It was okay, not unpleasant by any means, probably better closer to 2004.
A lightly hazed golden ale with a thin white head. A light coriander aroma with light catnip and caramel. In mouth, a rather thin tripel with light sweet malts, honey and warning alcohol. Tasted July 2007. Thanks to Presario for this one.
bottle at Woodshop. Golden amber color with average head. Aromas of fruit and spice. Flavors were malty with more spice and a decent fruit finish. Not bad.
Pours golden amber, caramel, bready, yasty, spice, little dark fruits, slight hop finish.
Woodshop Quad. Nose of caramel and fruit. Clear orange with a small off white head. Flavor was sweetness and caramel.
Bottle at the woodshop, tried from someone else’s glass after this was gone. golden in color and overall a very strange but likeable tripel.
Bottle on 11/30/2008 at the 3rd Annual Richmond Industry Gathering. Clear golden body with a small white head. Very sweet caramel and light fruit aroma. Big caramel flavor with toasty and bready notes. Medium full body wtih moderately low carbonation.
12 oz 2004 bottle via Bridgeview. 4 years old. Pours a hazy dark orange/copper with a small beige head. Nose is barleywinish. Taste is candy, maple, plums, toffee, and earthy hops, with some ginger and band-aid in the aftertaste. Body is medium, carbonation low/medium.
Pours a hazy orange with a tiny cream colored head. It smells like tea. Lemon, herbs, a touch of honey. Flavor is of oranges, almost a hint of canadian rye whiskey, and a slightly bitter finish. Palate is heavier-ish, little carbonation. Below average brew.
65cl bottle from Beverage Castle (Tampa, FL). Pours a hazy dark caramel color with a thin bubbly white head that settles quickly. Little glass lacing. Aroma is sweet and malty with notes of honey, caramel, and yeast. Flavor is somewhat bitter with notes of maple syrup, yeast, wet dog, and spice. Generally medium body with a slightly sweet, slightly bitter finish.
Draught @ the brewpub. Pours a hazy orange color with a small off-white head. Has a malty slightly alcoholic yeasty spicey aroma. Sweetish malty spicey and yeasty flavor with some hints of dark fruit. Has a long warming malty dark fruit finish.