ABV: 9.4%
Origin: Fort Bragg, California, USA
Website: www.northcoastbrewing.com
North Coast Brother Thelonious Belgian style abbey ale
There are multiple puns in the name and marketing of Brother Thelonious, a Belgian-inspired strong abbey ale that is indeed connected to a monk. The monk in question is, however, not one of the mash tun stirring Trappist variety but eccentric and influential jazz colossus Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-82), composer of the timeless standard ‘Round Midnight’. I’m not sure whether Monk was really a beer drinker — the fact that he named one of his best known tunes ‘Straight No Chaser’ rather suggests a preference for harder stuff. But it’s still a cool idea, and has inspired a cool label design with a Monk-like figure in monk-like robes looking enigmatically hip while wreathed in a piano key halo. It’s also perhaps symbolic of the way Americans have taken European models of brewing, shaken them up with all sorts of cross cultural influences and produced something native and unique, a little like the way African Americans invented jazz. A donation to the Monk Institute of Jazz is made from sales.
North Coast brewery, which is indeed on the north coast of California in Mendocino county, is another outgrown brewpub which under brewer Mark Ruedrich has earned renown for superb strong ales loosely based on European models — I also couldn’t fault Old No 38 Stout, Rasputin Imperial Stout and Old Stock Ale. Brother Thelonious pays some homage to those dark ales at the upper end of the Trappist scale, like Rochefort 12 and Westvleteren Abt, the sort that US beer style gurus, following the Dutch Trappists at Koningshoeven though not their Belgian brothers, term Quadruple, though with a slightly sour touch that has more in common with secular Flemish browns, and a vividness that is wholly Californian.
The dark ruby bottle conditioned beer has a loose bubbly pinkish head and a complex and elusive aroma with cherry brandy tones at first, becoming more broadly fruity with a touch of milk shake syrup and sourness. There’s also a cherry tartness to the dark chocolate malt palate, which develops an edgy roast note and a slug of hops. A long and weighty finish has lightly tart cherry fruit with a tapestry of hoppy flavours, lead pencil notes and a roasty bite. This is a distinctive and excellent beer that, like Monk’s music, makes you question received categories.
This was one of several bottles I enjoyed at the excellent Monk’s Kettle gastropub in San Francisco’s Misión.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/north-coast-brother-thelonious/58540/
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