Whereas the other double (Zeffer) and treble (Urbanaut) representatives in this year’s New World Beer & Cider Top 30 showed something of a stylistic focus (cider, hops respectively), Bootleg Brewery dropped a huge cross-style flex with their two Top 30 beers, with their Belgian-style quad, Late Night Monk Fight, alongside Apehanger (West Coast style IPA).
The aroma dials the star anise, licorice and allspice beyond what you’d find in a typical Belgian example, delivering a vastly sweet and pungent spice aroma over brown sugar and toasted malt. The palate, quite inexplicably, leans significantly drier. There’s plenty of sweet spice and malt richness, but a smokey char and minerality cut in towards the finish that sees this whopping 8.6% abv beer conclude remarkably dry.
The best before might indicate 2024, but a beer of this malt-driven magnitude will easily go for a decade onwards.
