$9 for a 13 ounce pour- Purchased at Monkey Town Brewing Company
Background
Let’s start out by saying…this review probably shouldn’t be happening. Reason? I really wasn’t supposed to get a growler filled up with this beer. I didn’t see the notice to that effect on Facebook until after I went to Monkey Town and the barkeep who poured it didn’t know until after someone got kinda crabby with her while she was pouring it. It was too late by then, so I got to keep the (small, 16 ounce) growler of beer to bring home…but don’t go over there expecting to get your own. This beer is limited to one glass per customer and you have to go to Monkey Town Brewing Company in Dayton, Tennessee, to get it.
What is it, anyway? Full Eclipse is a collaborative beer that Monkey Town did with Barley Mob of Chattanooga (a home brewing club) and Dynamic Ales (a craft brewery in Chattanooga). This is what was said of it on Facebook…
Alright folks, the time of darkness is upon us. This stout was brewed in collaboration with The Barley Mob of Chattanooga and Dynamic Ales, with the very talented Matt Warren and Ryan Golden providing their award winning Full Eclipse imperial stout as the test subject. While the majority of this extremely limited batch is peacefully aging in a single Chattanooga Whiskey barrel, this small keg is the only one of its kind.
This Imperial Stout weighs in at 10.1% ABV and the name commemorates the full solar eclipse on August 21 of last year; Dayton (and Monkey Town Brewing Company) was in the path of totality.
Notes
I elected to pair this beer with a Tatuaje 2014 TAA release. I found a few of them hiding in plain sight at one of the Burns locations a couple months back. I kept about 5 of them for myself and quickly sold off the rest of the sticks to a few people I knew would enjoy them.
As I read the description above, this stout is a “straight beer” without any added flavoring during brewing or aging. The aroma has a slight coffee note hiding behind the extreme maltiness. The mouthfeel of Full Eclipse is extraordinarily creamy and it definitely had notes of coffee, malts, toast and anise, along with a very slight sweetness that would be easier to define if they had added chocolate to the brewing process. Really, though, this was an excellent, complex beer without any extra components.
The Tat TAA blend is probably not one that I would choose to age for 3 or 4 years. While the cigar was still very good, it has definitely lost some of the intensity and aggressiveness that is still very evident in the 2017 release (which is the same blend and vitola). It had some nice chocolate notes, but pepper notes were subdued at best. It may be a great selection for this beer, though, as the mellower profile of an aged Tatuaje should allow more of the beer’s flavors to come through.
That worked out for the most part with the cigar adding some dark chocolate semi-sweetness to the pairing. Full Eclipse is an excellent stout that really need no additional flavoring agents…but I look forward to trying the barrel-aged version when it’s ready.
