16 oz growler - $8.50
- Purchased at Monkey Town Brewing Company
Background
It had been over a month since I had reviewed a beer from my hometown brewery, Monkey Town Brewing Company in the heart of downtown Dayton, Tennessee. It had actually been over a month since I had gone to Monkey Town or reviewed any beer, for that matter. Summer has just seemed to creep up on me and steal away all my free time, partially thanks to the big storm that hit my neighborhood at the beginning of July and left parts of two massive trees in the yard (thankfully not hitting the house). Cleanup on those has been a bear, leaving me with not enough time to get my graphics work done and get out to the brewery to grab something new to try…but not today!
I remember Kirby, Monkey Town’s owner and brewmaster, saying something to me a couple months back about doing an Imperial Stout (basically adding “Imperial” to the name of a beer says it’s going to be “big” and somewhere in the 8-12% ABV range) and last week he finally released something called “The Adventures of Ice Cream Man and Pastry Boi: Episode #2.” I don’t know what the reference is to, but it made me think of the Tenacious D song, “Wonderboy,” especially the part where Wonderboy and Nasty Man join forces.
At any rate, the name fits…this Imperial Milk Stout is brewed with vanilla beans and real vanilla ice cream. It weighs in at 10.1% ABV and is also part of Monkey Town’s “dessert stout” series.
Notes
I am pairing this beer with a Maduro, but breaking out of my “norm,” this time I’m going with the Norteño, part of Drew Estate’s vast catalog. Norteño was the second release from the Herrera Esteli (by Willy Herrera) line and features Nicaraguan fillers, a Honduran binder, and a Mexican San Andres Maduro wrapper. I reviewed the blend back in January 2015.
Pouring the beer into a glass, I was surprised that there was so little carbonation. A remark that Kirby had made about the Scout’s Honor series was that there was so much sugar that it killed the fizz, so making an Imperial should bring some of that back. I couldn’t get a decent head on the beer, although it really wasn’t completely flat. It had just a little fizz going on.
Hey, did I mention that this beer was brewed with vanilla? If I hadn’t said something, you would know just from smelling it…and when you tasted it you might say something like, “Whoa! That’s a whole lot of vanilla!!!” Because it is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…I am a huge fan of the flavor, which is part of the reason I love Bourbon so much. I just don’t think I’ve ever had a beer with this much vanilla up front. It does a good job of covering up the heavier alcohol aspect of the beer, too.
The cigar didn’t have any vanilla notes to it. It was full-bodied and carried tons of earth and coffee notes along with more subtle flavors of dark chocolate and anise. Because it wasn’t one of the sweeter Maduros on the market, the Norteño benefited greatly from the Ice Cream Man & Pastry Boi Imperial Milk Stout…and the Stout benefited from a great rounding out of flavors by the cigar.
One More Note
I bought two 16 ounce growlers of beer that day at Monkey Town. The second was called “Smooth Move, Lactose: Blueberry.” This is the latest in their Imperial Smoothie Ale series using lactose, vanilla beans and a purée of blueberries. Blues are my favorite type of berries so I was all over this one when I saw the availability. It had a slightly tart flavor, not nearly so sour as true “sour beers” tend to be. Yes…it’s very much like a fruit smoothie…thick, sweet and rich…then a little beery alcohol note behind that. Fun and innovative, but not something I would pair with a cigar and probably not something I do often.
