Terrapin Oaked Big Hoppy Monster
Like a mad scientist Spike starts with Big Hoppy Monster, Terrapin’s Imperial Red Ale, and its tantalizing hop aroma and enormous malt backbone. As if that if that wasn’t enough flavor for one beer, Spike ages it w/ French oak spirals for two months. The touch of toasted vanilla from the oak combines with the mammoth hop aroma and rich maltyness of the beer to create a complex flavor experience that’s electrifying!
-2012 - 9.1%
2013 - 10.6%
-2012 - 9.1%
2013 - 10.6%
3.7
203 reviews
Athens, United States
Community reviews
Lots of malt in this. Oak is there and I guess the aging kills the hops. Pours cloudy reddish with good head and lacing. Works to highlight malt. Thanks to GenDV138 for a taste of this at Churchkey.
4 ounce draft pour at ChurchKey. Ruby/amber color with off-white head. Aromas of caramel, dark fruit, nutty notes. Tastes of dark fruit, oak, caramel, coffee, roast, toast, light coconut. Medium-light body with a dry finish. Pretty enjoyable.
Bottle - Oak, vanilla and caramel. Cloudy brown with a thin white head. Vanilla, oak and tons of caramel with even hints of chocolate.
Aroma- Wow. Tropical fruit, caramel, chocolate, BIG Oak, vanilla, and a touch of pine. Subtle Scotch. Very inviting.
Taste- Super sweet intro that morphs into flavors mentioned above. Complex and very well balanced. Booze isn’t hidden, but adds a rich caramel meets licorice flavor.
Overall- I am impressed. And a bit buzzed. 10.3% sneaks up on you. This is a wonderful beer. Super complex and incredibly balanced. Flavors all over the map. A hoppy, malty, Imperial Red Ale spiked with the luscious tastes, smells, and feel of a good Scotch. I really can’t say enough. I will definitely have again.
Bold red pour w/ a frothy tan head that leaves a lot of lacing. The aroma is boozy w/ the oak shining through. The taste is surprisingly clean, quite malty, & leaves u w/ a sense of its potency. It’s fairly light on the palate & easily drinkable for being 10.6%. Definitely more of an imperial red than a double ipa.
Very floral when first poured. Brown with little floaties and just a wisp of foam. Oak and tobacco flavors are mellowed by caramel and resinous hops. Finish is slightly sweet. Hops just compliment rather than dominate.
Bottle. Reddish brown color. Large quickly disappearing head. Aroma is hoppy and oaky. Taste also hoppy, oaky with just a touch of dried fruit.
Nice extra from Westmeister-thanks, Wes! Copper colored. Nose is caramel malts, light wet oak. Taste is malty, with enough hops to cut it, earthy oak, lightly astringent wood tannins. Full bodied and smooth.
Pours a brownish orange with minimal head. Lots of sediment. Aroma is oaky malts and hops. Taste is sweet choppy malts. Smooth on palate
Deep orange -amber body was a little cloudy. The barrel aging seems to have taken out some of the fizz, as the beer was lightly carbonated, and the head was less than one finger thick, and faded rapidly. The smell was very typical IPA at first sniff, with pine resin being prevalent. Deeper breaths indicated more of the vanilla, brown sugar, and toffee from the wood tannin influence. Taste was a lot more mellow than I remember the regular BHM to be. There were clearly a lot of hops, but they had melded much better with the sweeter flavors emerging from the liquid touching oak barrels. There was some brown sugar, vanilla, raisins, and butterscotch flavors coming right behind the spicy hops. The finish revealed more of the dry, oak driven tannin tastes. The finish finished quite dry and sawdust like. A little thinner than the regular monster across the tongue. I usually am not a big fan of oak aging, but Terrapin seems to have used the emerging characteristics to enhance than overpower the original beer’s characteristics. The result is rounder, mellower, and more pleasing.
Pours a dark amber clouded with sediment and chunks of vegetable matter. Tan, 1/2 finger head. Zinc, toffee, and herbal nose. Nearing a viscous mouthfeel. The sediment is detected on the tongue’s surface. The oak flavor tends to overpower the beer. Hard to discern exactly what’s going on behind all that wood.
Bottle. Clear copper beer with a thick head. Bourbon oaky taste with hjnts on the aroma. Medium palate Good, unique taste
P: Hazed dark brown-amber body with a short lived crown of khaki bubbly head that settles to an alligator skin film on top.
S: Robust roasted caramel malt, toffee, timidly smoked oak, orange dish soap, vanilla, figs, apples peels, pumpernickel bread and dirty barley.
T/M: Huge flavors bursting into a robust malted beast with vanilla oak, smoldered barley and spicy-floral hops. Bready yeast, flowers, orange oil, figs soaked in spiced rum. This is similar to a barley wine style ale. Coffee comes out faintly in the background once swallowed. Full mouthfeel that is dense and chewy with moderate effervescence. Finish is dry with lingering bartlett pears, oak and pippali pepper.
O: A definite big boy beer. Robust and complex with big roasted malts and a great bombardment of spiced and floral hops. This is a beer I will always look forward to. Cheers!
Pours dark clear amber with sticky off white lacing. Smell is sticky sweet caramel, pine hops. Taste follows suit but oak really pokes through. Reminds me more of an american barleywine. Good.
Had four pack from Holmes. This seems a lot like oaked arrogant bastard. Slight oaky flavor with big malty and slightly boozy backbone. It says big hoppy but the hoops are over powered by oak and malt.
Pours a muddy red color with little head which dissipates quickly. Aroma is very warm, chocolate and roasty malt tones, some caramel, with a lot of oak on the finish. Taste is very smooth, begins with a bright citrus hoppy note followed by a wonderful dark roast, maybe a bit of smoke, malt with the oak once again present. Overall a fantastic beer, easy to drink, and big on flavor without feeling the surprising 10.6% ABV on our bottle, although here it is listed at 9.1%
sample at Food Bank bottle share, copper brownish pour. piney hops, rich toffee maltiness, vanilla & oak notes. everything blended together very wel. Very nice
This beer pours a brown copper color with a small off white head that doesn’t linger long. Smells of oaks and a bit of hoppyness towards the end. Taste is first fairly sweet vanilla and oak, followed by a balance of hop bitterness, piny. Nice beer alcohol is very well hidden
Sampled on draft at 3R6P this beer poured a plum-brown color with a medium sized foamy tan head that lingered and left decent lacing. The aroma was toffee, pine, resin and leather. The flavor was bitter with a sour caramel note, toffee, wood, smoke, fig, pine, resin, leather and noted alcohol. Long finish of toffee, caramel, fig, resin, leather and booze. Moderately full bodied. Pretty tasty.
I’m starting to think that oak aging beers does something to the hops. I can’t think of one that ever had much in the way of hop aroma. It could be the aging fades the more volatile hop aromatics, but I’m not really sure most oaked beers spend much more time between brewing and my mouth despite any wood aging.
That being said, the wood is very present and in a good way. Vanilla, toasted wood. Almost pineapple in the finish.
12oz bottle. Pours a deep red amber color with a finger of off white head. Aroma of rich caramel malt, earthy and piney hops, wood, and boozy. Taste is caramel, toffee, alcohol, oak, with a piney woody hop bite in the finish.
Orange pour with a white head. The aroma has some oak, cherry and toffee notes. The flavor is full of oak, dark fruit, toffee, pine and alcohol. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.
Aromatic - sweet, malty, woody, with a cutting edge up close. Longneck, bad label, foggy brown, khaki head. Big beer. Chalky toast, sweet, toffee, alcohol bitter, candied as it warms, grassy, with pencil shavings. Slippery mouthfeel, candied/bitter finish. Heavy body, warming in the esophagus. ABC Betton.
From a bottle.The pour is a red with brown tint with no head in appearence.There is a butterscotch taste more than any thing else I taste.
This brew is a dark brownish-amber color with a medium thick light beige head that diminishes gradually. Partial rings of lacing on the glass. Aroma of piney hops, oak and malt. Full-bodied with flavors of resiny hops, earthy malt and oak. The finish is oaky with a lingering piney hops aftertaste. Solid beer all around.
bottled, thanks to errrrl, muddy amber brown pour with aroma and flavor of burnt corn nuts, has a bit of a twangy metallic finish
Bottle->tulip. Dark orange amber with huge lite tan head. A: butterscotch malt, floral hops. T: dark fruit, sweet malt, hops, wood. Lingering bitter aftertaste. Decent, not great.
bottle from beechner224. pours crimson with a off white head. nose of hop resin. taste is balanced, hop resin under the surface held by caramel and vanilla. slight wood pulp. big body.
Bottle. The aroma is nice and hoppy with subtle oak. The taste is very good. The hops are strong, but not overwhelming and not bitter at all. The oak does some nice flavoring to it.
Draft, 2010. Murky brown color, tan edge head. Aroma of cocoa, vanilla, butterscotch. Taste is smooth toffee, vanilla, caramel. Hops are long gone, but this is delicious. 2013 had more hops, pine mostly. A totally different beer.