TN: Victory Golden Monkey

[Rob_Hansult]

Victory Golden Monkey

From a 12 oz. bottle

Tripel Ale with spices. 9.5% ABV

Very pale golden straw.

Big creamy head. Settles in a bit over 10 minutes. Leaves some light lacing.

Nose: Big bready, grainy, pale-malty, Belgian yeast, slight banana w/decent amount of spicy, earthy/herbal hops. A hint of pine & a bit of pungent/sweaty green hash.

Palate: Very pale malty. Spicy, grainy, & dry-ish. Slightly fruity/spicy, but dry, with light, but persistently earthy hoppy finish & aftertaste.
Fairly long flavor. The Belgian influence is less on the palate, especially yeast-wise, which suits me just fine.

Carries it’s 9.5% ABV very well indeed.

GREAT drinkability . . . Yeah, Uh, but be careful!

92 1/2 Points

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Love the style. Firmer & dryer than a classic Tripel, but that’s probably why I like it so much.

Another Big Cheers for Victory!

As a “just curious” postscript: someone on beeradvocate gave this brew an F, which was 1.2/20 Points; ~ 24/100. ??? WTF?

To me that kinda equates to: It was so bad it Killed them, & the Mother that bore them has become deathly ill.

I guess this is just one of my (not so little) bug-a-boos.

It’s not arguable that this is not very good beer. You may not like it, but that’s not how to use a scoring system.
I wonder if Mr./Ms. “F” would have been upset if they were given an F in school on, for example, a History exam, because the teacher scoring the exam didn’t like their prose style, even though they touched all the points called for. Hmmmmmmm . . . just sayin’ . . .

I admit I’ve got a very strong opinion on this aspect of beer/wine reviews - any input?

[Scott_Butler]

Probably an agenda…they got kicked out of the Victory tasting room for being overly drunk or something.

[Joe_Hauck]

I totally agree… seems that if people don’t like the style they will give it a poor review. It’s pretty easy to tell if a beer is well made even if it’s not your bag.

Most of the BA scores are useless to me. I will read the notes as that is where I tell if more people are lined up on the flavor profile. There seems to be a lot of fan boy -herd of lemmings beers that get great reviews. You know- everybody else likes this so it must be great.

[Jorge_Henriquez]

Thanks for the note. Have one bottle in the fridge. May open it over the weekend.

As for the gripe with BA scores; happens all too often on CT as well. Just ask a Mr. Mike Pobega about some run ins he’s had with someone about scoring wines that were not to Mr. Someone’s liking.

[Cris_Whetstone]

@Joe Hauck

I totally agree… seems that if people don’t like the style they will give it a poor review. It’s pretty easy to tell if a beer is well made even if it’s not your bag.

Most of the BA scores are useless to me. I will read the notes as that is where I tell if more people are lined up on the flavor profile. There seems to be a lot of fan boy -herd of lemmings beers that get great reviews. You know- everybody else likes this so it must be great.

That’s my biggest beef with that place. Its an echo chamber and its hard to find discussions. Just a lot of cheerleading.

[Rob_Hansult]

@Jorge Henriquez

Thanks for the note. Have one bottle in the fridge. May open it over the weekend.

As for the gripe with BA scores; happens all too often on CT as well. Just ask a Mr. Mike Pobega about some run ins he’s had with someone about scoring wines that were not to Mr. Someone’s liking.

Jorge,

Guess I missed that thread, but I think I agree w/Mr. Pobega on CT.

BA seems to have lots of negative reviews as well as the fan-boys: obviously either unskilled tasters, or inaccurate reviewers who just don’t care for a “good” brew.
CT seems to go the other way, with mostly fan-boys buoying up a lot of good, & some mediocre wines.
I certainly wouldn’t rely on either one for an accurate review of a wine or Beer I haven’t tasted.