White Monkey

This past Saturday was the release of the newest of Victory's barrel aged beers, White Monkey. This time Victory chose their crowd pleasing Golden Monkey, an abbey tripel, then aged the brew in Chardonnay barrels for three months. I've never been a huge fan of the style, but special releases at Victory are always a good time.

We had a breakfast reservation at 9 am, and since no one in our group planned on taking home more than a bottle, we skipped the huge line for the retail store and went right to the brewpub. As I said earlier, Golden Monkey is a fan favorite and this was made very obvious by the hoard of people there to take it home by the caseload. The breakfast menu was the same as it was for the Thanksgiving release of Red Thunder, which was fine with me because the food was excellent. Once again I went with the cornflake crusted stuffed french toast (as did nearly everyone in our group). Everyone also got a sample (5 oz) pour of White Monkey and the Victory breakfast staple, a Prima Mosa. It may seem a strange combination, but Victory Prima Pils and orange juice is as good as it gets and the perfect accompaniment to any breakfast.

The Prima Mosa and the french toast were as expected, fantastic. White Monkey was also as expected. There was a lot of white wine flavor, as this beer style really lends itself to that flavor profile. It was less sweet than the original but still held true to its abbey tripel roots. The beer was done really well and fans of the style will most likely really enjoy it, that being said, it just wasn't for me. I also tried a new brewery exclusive imperial ipa, K-Bomb, and unfortunately this one didn't do it for me either. It certainly wasn't bad, but just wasn't really anything special.

I refused to leave empty handed however. Victory had yet another new beer, this one released one day earlier -- Swing Session Saison. They have also brought back St. Victorious Doppelbock, which hasn't been brewed for several years due to capacity constraints. These turned out to be the two best beers of the day by far (reviews coming soon!).

All in all it was a great day and I can't wait to see what they do next. A barrel aged V 12 would be excellent but I trust the brewmasters to give us something great no matter what they choose.

Drink On,

Dan