Struise Aardmonnik / Earthmonk

Formerly brewed at De Struise Brouwers
Style: Sour Ale
Oostvleteren, Belgium

Incredibly drinkable and smooth for this style. Brownish red with some alcohol and woodiness in the scent. Medium mouthfeel, wonderful - with anything, thanks Hopdog.

750ml shared with IPFreely @ Delirium Cafe in Brussels. Sour, cola colored. Dark deep red brown with souur fruit taste. Style is starting to grow on me. Good call Tim.

Deep red almost black. A very thiny head. I seem to have an old version withour refermentation before me. A lot of geuze-like aroma’s. Very lactic but also some spiceness. Lactic sourness. Wine vinegar. Notes of chocolate, but the mild tartness prevails at the end.

Dark, redish brown with a tiny tan head. Fruity and vinous notes.Taste of fruits and sourness. Medium body with a bitteresweet finish.

Dark reddishbrown coloured, beige head. Aroma = yeast, malts, earthy, sourness. Medium at full body. What a great taste fruits, refreshing, sweet dark malts, sour, dry aftertaste. Good, good !

33cl bottle with cap from ygtbsm94. Thanks Brad!! The next batch of Earthmonk won’t be ready until the end of 2008 since the beer sits in Bourgogne wine barrels for I think 18 months. No carbonation and no head. Extremely dark reddish brown color. The wine barrel aging is supremely evident in both the taste and aroma. Down to the strong musty barrel nose on the first sniff. The sourness is something between apple and sour cherry. It reminds me of a mild version of a bad hair of dog adam I had. I see similarity to red poppy from the barrel, but this is a bit more mellowed. Stings and puckers the tongue if you hold it in your mouth with a long lingering sourness, reminiscent of balsamic vinegar. Poured back into bottle and did the big pour from 1foot, and got an interesting 1" large bubble head that quickly fades to a medium bubble ring around the glass. Aroma was about the same. Taste is fruity, and yet toward the dry side. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of this style, so I’m trying really hard to like this one, because of it’s high rating. I should have tried it with a friend to gain a better appreciation. If I didn’t know about the high rating of this beer, I would simply say it’s bad and my rating is generous. But knowing this beer brings my rating up a bit.

750ml Bottle with cap & synthetic cork, Best by date of July 2011, Sampled September 2007
Pours completely flat looking with a couple bubbles sitting around the edges of the glass. When some additional beer is poured from a height of 1.5 feet (46cm), a very large bubbled frothy, quickly disappearing, amber tinged, light brown colored head is summoned forth. The beer, a concentrated-amber / black-cherry color, is dark enough to be opaque as it sits in the glass but shows a brilliantly clear dark ruby color around the edges. The aroma is quite tart smelling with notes of balsamic vinegar, lactic acid, tamarind and some touches of cherries & other vaguely fruity notes. There are also some light, aged / oxidized malt notes that lean towards sherry in the nose. The aroma is quite tart, quit nice and quite enticing for this lover of sour beers. As the beer warms a bit, rich malty notes become much more noticeable; significant caramelized malt aromatics, toasted grain, brown sugar and toffee become much more apparent and actually soften the tart aromatics over time.

The beer feels completely flat, yet has some fullness to the body; almost a bit viscous as if there should be quite a bit of residual sweetness. The beer is fairly dry, but there is a touch of malty sweetness (though not quite as much as the palate might suggest). Richly malty, with a chewy, rich, almost umami character to it. Definitely sour, but not as much as the aroma might have suggested; the acid character is here, it is just that the body of this brew provides a really nice counterpoint and even foil for the tartness, such that it is not as overwhelming as it could be. Quite fruity tasting but leaning towards the dark side of the spectrum. I get notes of sour raisins, dark pie cherries, tamarind, figs, prunes, notes of sherry & Madeira. As the beer warms up a bit, a touch of woody / tannic astringency becomes noticeable in the finish (I think this is more from fermentation character than any wood used in the brewing of this beer, but I could be wrong). As the beer warms it picks up a striking balance to it; even at the beginning the flavor was balanced, but as the beer warms the aromatic components balance out, as does the body & flavor components.

Despite being flat, this beer is rich & tasty; I am actually quite surprise how good this beer is with the lack of carbonation (the rich mouthfeel really helps here). Hopefully I can get a hold of a carbonated sample of this brew as I have a feeling the carbonation would make this beer quite stellar. I certainly got hung up on the lack of carbonation at first, but the more I taste this beer the more impressed I am by its complexity and balance; I still think some noticeable if not effervescent carbonation would put this over the top though. I actually was a bit disappointed in this beer at first, but it has really grown on me, and in fact really needs to breath a bit before it comes into its own.

Name: Aardmonnik / Earthmonk
Date: June 21, 2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Pre-RBSG
Appearance: muddy brown, fine beige head, lots of drippy lace
Aroma: tart cherry and oak aroma with a good chocolate backbone
Flavor: rich malt flavor, lots of tart cherry character, light bitterness

Name: Aardmonnik / Earthmonk
Date: February 23, 2008
Mode: bottle
Source: cellar tasting
Aroma: sweet tart dark woody cherry pit aroma
Flavor: big dark chocolate and tart cherry flavor

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 3.9/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: **4