Boaks Two Blind Monks

Boaks
Brewed at High Point Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Pompton Lakes, New Jersey USA

Pours dark, dark brown that looks deep copper when held up to light. There is a small bubbly head that dissipates quickly leaving only hints of lacing. Aroma has sweet candied sugar and caramel malts on top of the Belgian yeast backbone. Dark fruits come through as it warms. The taste is similar to the aroma with lots of yeast and sweet caramel malts. Candied sugar, figs and raisins also come out in the flavor. The mouthfeel is sticky with the sweetness and good carbonation. This is a good representation of a dubbel and quite enjoyable.

Pours out dark brown with a moderate frothy slightly off white head. Aroma is both fruity, malty and spicy...interesting. Taste is complex, plum, caramel, banana, fig, clove and a slightly bitter finish. I usually don’t really care for this style, but this was very well done.

Pours a rich frothy garnet and capped with a luxurious white-tan foam. Salted caramel and raisin aroma; heavy coriander and thyme; the greenness of the spicy-herbal quality is salient to offset the somewhat brazen sweetness first found. A quiet caramelized sugar-wrapped nuttiness slowly emerges. It’s indistinctly dirty; somewhat metallic and mineral; hints of iron, hazelnuts, and nut skins. There’s a mild spoiled fruit foulness, and lots of plain sugar, but the impression overall is pretty appetizing.

First taste is a coriander and garlic clove pungent sweet-spicy assault. It made me cough. But it opens up eagerly with a warm rush of sweet tobacco-leaning maltiness, that expands and envelopes an impressively wide spectrum of the benchmarks of this style: banana, clove, hazelnut, pit fruits, and milk chocolate. Vanilla is a little forced. Extract-like and cloying. Cotton candy, candy sugars, and turbinado lacquer a thick crusty coat of glucose on the heavy plums, pears, and blood oranges; the deep fruity character it shows rarely digs into the traditional ground of vinous fruits and ester qualities but is more in the region of stone fruits, and that’s pleasant. Who wouldn’t prefer the heartiness of pluots, cherries and pears against overripe bananas? Coated in chocolate. Bananas still peek through a little bit. Mid palate brings a healthy autumnal bitterness, partially of leaves and dust, but as in the aroma mostly of hazelnut skins. It works.

Palate is medium-full, soft, and sparkly. Sticky finish of caramel-dipped strawberries, extract vanilla, and gooey cinnamon sugar. A fine belgian-style offering. Bottling issues seem likely, as the lower ratings of the beer really bear no resemblance to my experience with it, which was altogether charming and pleasant. This one seems to be a real underdog. Thanks Steve!

Bottle. Deep reddish brown in color with a little off white head. Malty chocolatety roasty aroma. Caramel yeasty notes. Dark fruity spicy malty flavor. Vanilla hoppy notes. Finish is slightly bitter. Medium bodied. Nice beer Brian. Very drinkable.

Bottle shared by kmweaver. Dark plum/brown colored body, murky, with an off-white head. Deep malt nose of old plum and sweetened tobacco. Full on the palate, toasty plum and crystal malt thoughtout. Nice.

12oz bottle, courtesy of yobdoog. Thanks, Trevor! Pours a murky cola color; light tan head with fine-bubbled lacing. Plenty of cola, brown sugar, and pleasant yeastiness in the aroma; soft and cola-driven nose. Medium-to-full mouthfeel: chewy sugar, dried dark fruits, and cola upfront; good levels of carbonation; very pleasant, soft yeast character coupled to a toasty vanilla note. Lengthy finish: toasty grains, cola, and brown sugar; again, soft throughout with toasty vanillaness.

Nice bonus from BrianK. Chocolate brown pour with a medium fizzy head. Earthy aroma of raisins, figs, yeast. Malty taste with notes of toffee, raisins, yeast and tea. Slightly bitter finish. Lively effervescence. Very nice. And, my first New Jersey brew!

12oz bottle-pours a foamy briefly then dissipating tan head and deep red/mahogany color. Aroma is medium malt-roasty, leathery/earthy, fruit, spicy. Taste is dark/medium malt-roasty/some chocolate notes, fruity-cherry, secondary earthy/spice /grass/hay-hops. A decent beer that is an interesting interpretation that’s a bit more bitter, less sweet malt and less yeast impact than standard. OK carbonation.