793. Founders Brewing – 2015 Blushing Monk

Founders Brewing - 2015 Blushing MonkWe’ve had a really great day, relaxing, watching football, and introducing the kids to a few new Christmas movies, like Home Alone and National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation. While watching movies, I thought I’d crack open this beer, which I’ve been looking forward to trying. There’s something about raspberries and beer I enjoy, so I was glad when I was able to find this at our local Hy Vee grocery store this past summer.

Location: Poured into a TEKU glass from the bomber bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL

Numbers: 9.2% ABV, ~300 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s deep red in color, almost like a red wine. It’s also somewhat hazy with s good amount of carbonation in it. The head fell rather quickly to a grouping of creamy-soapy bubbles across the top. Raspberries dominate the aroma with some dark tart fruitiness.

Taste & Feel: The body is full and the mouthfeel is a little crisp. The flavor up front is sweet rasperries, like you just bit into one. The raspberry and dark fruit flavors grow pretty bold in the middle, but in the finish, the flavors get even sweeter and becomes sour and tart raspberry, almost cranberry-like. The raspberry sweetness lasts for a minute or two in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer is almost like raspberry juice, and would be perfect with a rich chocolate dessert. With all the raspberry sweetness, it’s a great dessert beer to be enjoyed on its own. I can’t imagine it would go with much else than a dessert.

Overall Impression: I wasn’t sure if this would have more beer flavor, or raspberry flavor. It reminded me quite a bit of New Glarus Raspberry, with a bit more body and some more maltiness than I remember in it. Like the New Glarus beer, it was more like raspberry juice than beer, but this one seemed to have a bit more body and slightly creamy maltiness. Overall, I liked the flavors, but it was much more of a liquid dessert than a beer.

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Your rating:

Author: kkozlen

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