Review Date 2/16/2019
Try?
Re-buy?
It’s Valentines Day! A day for love! And boy, do I love beer. Not as much as I love dear Beloved Barbara™, mind you, but I do love beer, as you might have guessed based on the volume of beers reviewed here at Bruguru.com. Here I am at Taco Mac, too, and they have a special beer release (actually a few) just for Valentines: Founders Blushing Monk Belgian-Style Ale Brewed with Raspberries.
Now, Founders is wise in the ways of business, and hasn’t released this beer in four years. They like to establish pent-up demand and then release a beer only periodically. As such, Blushing Monk hasn’t been released in 4 years, and wasn’t released for four years prior to that, either.
Founders said this in 2015:
We last released Blushing Monk in July of 2011; before that, we hadn’t put it out in four years. This is the first Backstage Series beer that we’ve brought back.
Blushing Monk is brewed with a ridiculous amount of raspberries and with a Belgian yeast strain that keeps our head cellar operator from sleeping for a week. It pours a stunning deep berry red and, at 9.2% ABV, has a surprising kick. The perfect dessert beer, it can be enjoyed on its own or paired with fresh cheeses, fruit, cakes and more.
And in 2019:
When our love of fruit and our love of beer come together, Blushing Monk happens. Brewed with a ridiculous amount of raspberries for tart yet luscious raspberry-jam character and fermented with Belgian yeast for subtle fruit and spice esters. Think of Blushing Monk as Rubaeus’ older sibling – more intense, slightly larger and just a little bit more mature.
This year, Founders Blushing Monk Belgian-Style Ale Brewed with Raspberries has an alcohol content of 9.2% by volume with 20 IBUs. I paid $7.50 for an 11-ounce draft at Taco Mac and it sells for $17.99 a four pack at Total Wine.
My
glass of Founders Blushing Monk Belgian-Style Ale Brewed with Raspberries
arrived a bright pinkish red color with a tight pink cap of foam. I got
tart raspberry jam in the nose with a hint of cherry. Taking a sip,
there is intense raspberry fruit in the palate, moderate tartness, vinous white
grape, and a slightly sweet finish. On the downside, the fruit totally drowns
out any Belgian yeasty notes here. Really a glorified fruit beer, but while
sipping it the thought entered my mond that this might be sublime blended with
porter or stout.
Hey! Let’s order a porter then! As it so happened, New Realm beers were featured as beer of the month, and they had a Mocha Porter on offer. So, I ordered one. I saved a bit of the Founders Blushing Monk in the bottom of my glass, drank my lovely New Realm Mocha Porter down to about an equal portion, and blended the two. The results were impressive indeed, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
The pinkish tint in the bottom of the photo here comes through not quite so well as it appeared in reality. Sipping he blend was like biting through a dark chocolate shell with a hint of coffee only to have a creamy raspberry center burst in your mouth. Wonderful!
As to my final thoughts on Founders Blushing Monk Belgian-Style Ale Brewed with Raspberries, I’d give it four stars initially, although the high price and dearth of Belgian character knock it down to 3 ½. Would I buy it again? Not in bottles, not for eighteen bucks for four bottles. Not no way, not no how. Still, if I came a cross it again in another four years, I would probably order up a glass on tap, or maybe buy a single. Only time will tell.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
